What Is Advent?

Your family might use an Advent calendar to count down to Christmas. The children might open a flap or a door each day to see the surprise. Or, you might have an Advent wreath with four candles, three purple and one rose. Each week of Advent you light one more candle (the rose on week three) until the last week when they are all lit.

For most of December secular activities pile up – shopping, parties, family gatherings, cookie baking – well, you get the idea. Christmas, as a season, begins right after Thanksgiving and ends on Christmas. We had neighbors who unceremoniously tossed the tree out into a snowbank right after the kids opened presents on Christmas morning. In fact, the twelve days of Christmas begin on Christmas and end with Epiphany (January 6). The seasons of Christmas and Epiphany run until February 2, Candlemas. Most people celebrating the religious along with the secular usually wait until after Epiphany to take down their decorations. 

So where does that leave Advent?

The word Advent comes from the Latin “advenio,” meaning arriving or come to. It’s a time of expectation, waiting for the arrival of Jesus. During this time, we prepare for His coming by fasting and praying, and reminding ourselves that as we prepare for His birth, we also need to prepare ourselves for His second coming. In short, it is a mini version of Lent, a penitential season before the joyous season of Christmas.

Let’s prepare ourselves before Christmas to properly celebrate the day and the time after so that we can linger and rejoice in the miracle of this birth.