Celebrating Advent
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Counting the days until Christmas Day
I love Advent. It is a time of preparation, expectation, anticipation, and celebration. It is also a time emphasising family, which can have mixed emotions for many people.
Advent calendars are a popular Christmas tradition for children and adults alike, counting down the days to Christmas Day. If you are looking for something a bit different this year, Jacquie Lawson (who designs beautiful flash e-cards) has put together a special Advent calendar that you can download onto your computer for £2.00. It has magical scenes and Christmas music.
The Christian tradition
Advent candles are also a lovely way to celebrate the season. The lighting of an Advent candle each day creates a time for me to think of my friends and family and current world events, lifting my prayers to God as I think about my relationship with Him.
Advent in the Christian tradition begins from the Sunday nearest to the 30th November. This year it began on the 28th November. Advent comes from the Latin word ‘adventus’ which means waiting for the arrival of Jesus.
Advent wreath / ring
Some churches include an advent wreath / ring, where 5 candles are lit, one each week leading up to Christmas Eve; the first candle is lit on Advent Sunday to be joined on the following weeks of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th, and the 5th candle, placed at the centre of the ring, is lit on Christmas Day.
Symbolism of the Advent wreath / ring
The four candles in the ring symbolise hope, peace, love and joy. The lighting of the 5th candle signifies the coming of Jesus; the light of God coming into the world through the birth of His son Jesus.
Christingle
The Christingle celebrations is held from Advent to Epiphany (Sunday nearest to the 30th November – 6th January)
As a child one of my favourite things to do in the lead up to Christmas was helping to make the Christingles that our church would be using. It was a real family day, with the pot of tea constantly on the go, munching mince pies, singing carols, and the glorious smell of sweet oranges filling the air. If you haven’t seen a Christingle it involves an orange, dried fruit, red ribbon or tape, and a candle. Each part has a symbolic meaning.
Symbols of the Christingle –
- The orange – symbolises the world.
- Red ribbon / tape – symbolising the love of Jesus
- Four cocktail sticks with dried fruit on each end – symbolises the four seasons
- Last but not least the lighted candle sitting in the centre – symbolising Jesus, the light of the world.
A time to reflect
Many people focus on the idea of making new years resolutions (how many of those do we actually keep?) And see it as a time for looking to the future, and the hope of a fresh start in a new year. This can be very helpful to set yourself targets and things that you hope to achieve. But for me and many other Christians, advent is a time for reflection as to what has happened in the year that is coming to an end. A time to reflect on new friendships made, remembrance of those we have lost, the hopes and wishes we have achieved, challenges we have faced and overcome or carry with us into the New Year, and thanking God for His blessings.
I am aware that not all people have had a positive experience of Christians and churches and their dealings with them – and I include myself among those people. However, the time for reflection is about a personal expression and exploration of my own faith and spirituality. I enjoy using the Celtic Christian prayers and readings, which often looks at the seasons of the year, with reflection and thanksgiving being an essential part of this form of worship.
‘O Lord our God
and God of our fathers!
Mercifully direct and guide our steps
to our destination,
and let us arrive there
in health, joy and peace!
Keep us from snares and dangers,
and protect us from enemies
that we might meet along the way.
Bless and protect our journey!
Let us win favour in Your eyes
and in the sight of those around us.
Blessed are you, O Lord,
who hear and grant our prayers!’
(Taken from Celtic Daily Prayer from the Northumbria Community.)
Advent may be for a season and celebrating Christmas may feel like it’s just for one day, but for Christians, Advent and Christmas means so much more, a message of hope, peace, love and joy.
About Anita HuntAnita Hunt specialises in botanical photography, and is the creator of beautiful, luxury greeting cards and gifts, inspired by the beauty of nature. You can join her on Twitter @NitaJoyDesigns and facebook. She is also a children's author and anti-bullying campaigner Are You Being Bullied?
View all posts by Anita Hunt →
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I remember us celebrating Advent when I was a child, but of course nowadays it is almost impossible to find an Advent calendar which is not chocolate-based. My in laws always used to buy them for the boys, but they are thwarted now, because chocolate Advent calendars are banned at school (hurrah!). I think it is a terrible debasement of what Advent is supposed to be about.
Thanks for this interesting post, Anita. The bit about taking the time to reflect on the past year made me stop and think. This year has been one of the worst / most challenging years I’ve had for a very long time and in many ways I’ve been looking forward to seeing the end of this year, whilst hoping and planning for a much better 2011. But, now that I think of it, it’s obviously much more constructive and healthy to take the time to reflect on the events of 2010 (good and bad – and there have been high points as well of course), rather than be in such a hurry to ditch the past year and move on as quickly as possible. Thank you for reminding me
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Thanks for information, I’ll always keep updated here!