What a joy: Today is the 1st Advent!
The Advent season is cozy and hectic at the same time. The winter darkness gives plenty of opportunity for reflection in the weeks before Christmas. Plenty of time to do handicrafts with the children, to meet friends. And no matter how you want to celebrate the following holidays: Holiday preparations are an essential part of Advent and sometimes cause stress.
Here’s everything you need to know about Advent.
That is the meaning of the Advent season
Advent is a very special time of the year for young and old. This year the first Advent falls on November 28th. The term Advent is derived from the Greek term for “appearance”, which means something like arrival, presence, visit of a king. In Latin, this became adventus Divi, meaning “arrival of the divine ruler”.
The waiting time for Christmas, the feast of the birth of Jesus Christ, is celebrated in Advent.
For the early Christians (from the 4th century), Advent was a period of Lent between the Martin’s Day (November 11th) and the day on which the birth of Christ was celebrated. Since the 7th century, Advent has been celebrated for four weeks as so-called tempus ante natale Domini (“time before the birth of the Lord”) or tempus adventūs Domini (“time of the arrival of the Lord”).
Why there are four Sundays in Advent
Since Pope Gregory (540-604) the four Sundays of the Western Church have symbolized the four thousand years that people, according to the view of the time, had to wait for the Savior after the fall of man.
By the way: The Orthodox Church celebrates Advent for six weeks (November 15 to December 24).
How we celebrate Advent
We learn this rhyme as children. There are four candles amidst fir green the Advent symbol! Traditionally, one more is lit on each of the last four Advent Sundays before Christmas.
In addition: From December 1st, a new door will open on countless advent calendars every day. And they are becoming increasingly popular with adults too.
Stollen and cookies are baked and also given away and nibbled at the same time. Houses, gardens and city centers are festively decorated with fairy lights.
And we especially like to do good: Donation galas and many charity campaigns collect record sums for the weak and needy during this time.
Children (and some adults too) listen to Christmas carols, write wish lists and are excited about the Christmas presents. Colleagues and club mates go out to eat together in Advent or throw a party.
Finally we get the tree, delicious food and gifts for all our loved ones and write festive mail to everyone we don’t meet in person.
Advent decorations particularly popular in Saxony: a wood-carved candle arch shines on the windowsill of a house.
Why is Advent sometimes longer and sometimes shorter?
The Advent season of the Latin Church lasts 22 to 28 days and always has four Sundays. It begins with the first Vespers on the eve of the first Sunday in Advent. It ends on Christmas Eve before the first Christmas Vespers.
Reason for the different length of the Advent season: The start must be on a moving Sunday. The end, however, has a fixed date: December 24th.
The earliest possible day for the fourth Advent is December 18th according to the calendar. The latest December 24th. We light the fourth candle on the Advent wreath in the afternoon and the one on the Christmas tree in the evening.
By the way: The Protestant theologian Johann Hinrich Wichern (1808–1881) had the first Advent wreath hung up in 1839 in the prayer room of the “Rauhen Haus” in Hamburg. A wooden candlestick with a total of 23 candles. 19 small red candles for the working days until Christmas and four thick white candles for Sundays.
Today, Advent wreaths and arrangements are equipped and decorated in very different ways. Most of them have fir green and four candles – one for every Sunday.
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