Advent is a season observed in many Christian churches as a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas.
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- What’s the meaning of our Advent and Christmas traditions?
- Topic: Advent and Christmas
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Crib scenes, in churches and homes, are said to have begun with St.
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Francis of Assisi in see sidebar. While the manger is empty all through Advent, many places are known to have faithful bring the Christ Child to be blessed at Mass on the Fourth Sunday of Advent — Bambino Sunday — before traditionally placing him in the manger on Christmas morning. Many cultures traditionally mark Christmas Eve by abstaining from meat. Roast beef or pork used to be standard in English-speaking countries on Christmas Day, but now turkey or ham is commonplace.
Christmas games, quizzes and jokes all date back to medieval times as ways of making merry in the long dark evenings of winter. Even today, with television dominating our lives, Christmas is still a time for singalongs, special programs and games. Epiphany — remembering the arrival of the Three Kings — is a big celebration in Spain. Still fixed on Jan. Meanwhile, the Three Kings arrive at household manger scenes around the world, often having traveled from room to room around the house.
What’s the meaning of our Advent and Christmas traditions?
The French have given us the galette des rois — a delicious pastry with a small king embedded inside. Whoever gets him is king or queen for the evening, wears a golden paper crown and chooses the first game to be played. These are known today in the United States as king cakes in many regions claiming French ancestry, such as Louisiana, where they are eaten all the way through Mardi Gras. Christmas is a time for storytelling, family reminiscences, tales of Christmases past. It really happened and is a symbol of the whole heartbreaking tragedy of that war. And Christmas is indeed bittersweet: Christmas for some is a time of loneliness, poignant memories or mild regrets.
But Christ knows about all of that, for He came to bear our sins and bring us new life. As a British folk carol says: Joanna Bogle is a British Catholic journalist, writer and broadcaster. Feasts within Advent St. The fourth-century bishop from modern-day Turkey has become forever connected to Christmas for his reputation as a gift-giver.
Nicholas, however, is also recalled as a staunch defender of the Faith — even slapping the heretic Arius at the Council of Nicaea A. Lucy was tortured by eye-gouging and is patroness of afflictions of the eyes. Her fame spread to Scandinavia via missionaries and she is commemorated there today by Catholics and Lutherans alike. Families and businesses make special efforts to make their booth the favorite, featuring one of the many scenes from the biblical Christmas story.
Small gifts, candy, and Christmas Cards are distributed from the booths to the passer-bys, and normally caroling troops move from booth to booth on Christmas Eve, after which the entire village makes their way to the Church to celebrate late evening Mass. The citizens of Spain, largely Catholic, have traditionally celebrated all the great themes of Christmas but the gift giving tradition assumes that Wise men on horseback actually give the gifts to the children in some type of annual reenactment of the first Christmas gift giving.
Special care is made to provide food for the horses and treats for the wise men.. They typically celebrate Christmas Eve, Nochebuena, with their families and friends with a meal. Nearly every family will have a Nativity scene, and some are incredibly elaborate. The Swedes have created a number of unique perspectives around the Christmas celebration, not the least of which is referring to their version of Santa, Tomte, as a type of actually unattractive, and some children would say scary gnome, who only appears from out of a barn, or from under a building to deliver gifts.
Instead, the rather diminutive sleigh is drawn by a magic goat, and the gifts, only for the very good children are left sometimes well hidden throughout the house. The packages are typically wrapped in several layers of paper to make the opening of the gift more of an event. She dresses for the part with traditional white robe like dress, special jewelry for headdress, and wakes the family to a very traditional celebratory breakfast of fresh baked buns, and cookies.
Later in the same day, the traditional dinner of fish is topped off with Christmas rice pudding. The celebration of Christmas in Russia changed dramatically after the Revolution of Many are not aware that the many traditions of celebrating Christmas observed pre that were church based were actually made illegal. Long Christmas parades with costume, the star of Bethlehem on poles, and meals celebrated together before attending Christmas Mass after visiting the Nativity scenes in the public squares were all banned.
A different gift giver personality was created, and Saint Nicholas was replaced with Grandfather Frost. Gifts, when delivered come from Grandfather Frost, and his helper, the Snow Maiden. The Swiss celebrate Christmas as a holy extended celebration, with the spirit of gift giving directed by a character called Christkind, who is a spiritualized present day incarnation of the original Christ Child. Plays, and music fill town squares, and the usually quiet, and somewhat reserved Swiss people get into the spirit of the holiday with living nativity scenes, street side theatre, and general good will flowing from walk by samplings of Christmas fruits, cakes, and cookies.
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The word Advent derives from the Latin word meaning coming. The Lord is coming. We may reflect that every year at this time we celebrate his coming , so that in a sense we can lose the feeling of expectancy and joyful anticipation, because at the end of the season, everything seems to return to pretty much the same routine. If that is the case, then our preparation may have been lacking To become the mother of the Savior, Mary "was enriched by God with gifts appropriate to such a role.
In fact, in order for Mary to be able to give the free assent of her faith to the announcement of her vocation, it was necessary that she be wholly borne by God's grace The weeks of Advent remind us to set aside some of the hectic business of the holiday season, and to quietly reflect on the promise of the baby born in Bethlehem years ago. The Bible readings listed below relate to the Advent themes of waiting, preparation, light in the darkness, and the coming of the promised Messiah. This limited edition is Pope Francis on Christmas Day said the commemoration of Christ's birth is an occasion to remember and pray for every child who suffers due Pope Francis said the birth of Jesus is an invitation for all Christians to imitate him in reaching out to embrace the vulnerable and all Since you came to Jesus, you've prayed, you've had faith in the Lord and you've done the best you could to meet God halfway - but now, near Imagine hearing a knock at your front door.
As you open the door, to your great surprise you see a baby lying in front of you. Reading 1, First Corinthians Joseph of Cupertino September In the thirteenth century, the fast of Advent was not commonly practised although, according to Durand of Mende, fasting was still generally observed. As quoted in the bull of canonisation of St. Louis, the zeal with which he observed this fast was no longer a custom observed by Christians of great piety.
It was then limited to the period from Saint Andrew until Christmas Day, since the solemnity of this apostle was more universal than that of St. When Pope Urban V ascended the papal seat in , he simply forced people in his court to abstinence but there was no question of fasting. It was then customary in Rome to observe five weeks of Advent before Christmas. This is particularly discussed in the Sacramentary of St. The Catholic Church, for centuries, has begun the season of Advent on the fourth Sunday before Christmas and neither fast nor abstinence are observed.
No canonical penalty has ever been attached to the neglect of the practices of Advent. The Church has at times declined to administer the sacrament of matrimony during Advent, because of the joy connected with the celebration. The liturgy of Advent remained unchanged until the Second Vatican Council, in , introduced minor changes, differentiating the spirit of Lent from that of Advent, emphasising Advent as a season of hope for Christ's coming now as a promise of his Second Coming. The theme of readings and teachings during Advent is often the preparation for the Second Coming , while also commemorating the First Coming of Christ at Christmas.
The first clear references in the Western Church to Advent occur in the Gelasian Sacramentary , which provides Advent Collects, Epistles, and Gospels for the five Sundays preceding Christmas and for the corresponding Wednesdays and Fridays. In some Christian denominations , blue, a colour representing hope, is an alternative liturgical colour for Advent, a custom traced to the usage of the Church of Sweden Lutheran and the medieval Sarum Rite in England.
In addition, the colour blue is also used in the Mozarabic Rite Catholic and Anglican , which dates from the 8th century.
Topic: Advent and Christmas
This colour is often referred to as "Sarum blue". There has been an increasing trend in Protestant churches to supplant purple with blue during Advent as it is a hopeful season of preparation that anticipates both Bethlehem and the consummation of history in the second coming of Jesus Christ. Proponents of this new liturgical trend argue that purple is traditionally associated with solemnity and somberness, which is fitting to the repentant character of Lent. The Roman Catholic Church retains the traditional violet.
During the Nativity Fast, red is used by Eastern Christianity, although gold is an alternative colour. Many churches also hold special musical events, such as Nine Lessons and Carols and singing of Handel's Messiah oratorio. Also, the Advent Prose , an antiphonal plainsong , may be sung. They form the basis for each verse of the popular Advent hymn, " O come, O come, Emmanuel ". During Advent, the Gloria of the Mass is omitted, so that the return of the angels' song at Christmas has an effect of novelty.
Bishop Perpetuus of Tours, who died in , ordered fasting three days a week from the day after Saint Martin's Day 11 November. In the 6th century, local councils enjoined fasting on all days except Saturdays and Sundays from Saint Martin's Day to Epiphany the feast of baptism , a period of 56 days, but of 40 days fasting, like the fast of Lent. In the Anglican and Lutheran churches this fasting rule was later relaxed. The Roman Catholic Church later abolished the precept of fasting at an unknown date at the latest in , later, but kept Advent as a season of penitence.
In addition to fasting, dancing and similar festivities were forbidden in these traditions. On Rose Sunday , relaxation of the fast was permitted. Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches still hold the tradition of fasting for 40 days before Christmas. In England, especially in the northern counties, there was a custom now extinct for poor women to carry around the "Advent images", two dolls dressed to represent Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary. A halfpenny coin was expected from every one to whom these were exhibited and bad luck was thought to menace the household not visited by the doll-bearers before Christmas Eve at the latest.
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In Normandy , farmers employed children under twelve to run through the fields and orchards armed with torches, setting fire to bundles of straw, and thus it was believed driving out such vermin as were likely to damage the crops. In Italy, among other Advent celebrations is the entry into Rome in the last days of Advent of the Calabrian pifferari , or bagpipe players, who play before the shrines of Mary, the mother of Jesus: In recent times the most common observance of Advent outside church circles has been the keeping of an advent calendar or advent candle , with one door being opened in the calendar, or one section of the candle being burned, on each day in December leading up to Christmas Eve.
In many countries, the first day of Advent often heralds the start of the Christmas season , with many people opting to erect their Christmas trees and Christmas decorations on or immediately before Advent Sunday. Since , an Advent labyrinth consisting of tealights has been formed for the third Saturday of Advent in Frankfurt - Bornheim. The concept of the Advent wreath originated among German Lutherans in the 16th Century. In view of the impatience of the children he taught as they awaited Christmas, he made a ring of wood, with nineteen small red tapers and four large white candles.
Every morning a small candle was lit, and every Sunday a large candle. Custom has retained only the large candles. The wreath crown is traditionally made of fir tree branches knotted with a red ribbon and decorated with pine cones, holly, laurel, and sometimes mistletoe. It is also an ancient symbol signifying several things; first of all, the crown symbolises victory, in addition to its round form evoking the sun and its return each year. The number four represents, in addition to the four weeks of Advent, the four seasons and the four cardinal virtues, and the green colour is a sign of life and hope.
The fir tree is a symbol of strength and laurel a symbol of victory over sin and suffering.