Advent, meaning “the coming” is a time when we wait expectantly. Christians began to celebrate it as a season during the fourth and fifth centuries. Like Mary, we celebrate the coming of the Christ child, what God has already done. And we wait in expectation of the full coming of God’s reign on earth and for the return of Christ, what God will yet do. But this waiting is not a passive waiting. It is an active waiting. As an expectant mother knows, this waiting also involves preparation, exercise, nutrition, care, prayer, work and birth involves pain, blood, tears, joy, release, community. It is called labor for a reason. Likewise, we are in a world pregnant with hope, and we live in the expectation of the coming of God’s kingdom on earth.
Colors in the church play a significant role throughout the many different seasons. Advent is often marked with purple, signifying royalty; in earlier times, purple often marked the coming of a king or a Caesar. Often, members of the royal family were the only people allowed to wear it. Many Christians celebrate Advent by lighting a purple candle each week for the four weeks leading up to Christmas, and then lighting a “Christ candle” (usually white or red) on Christmas Eve.
SAINT NICK
Many Christians also remember St. Nicholas, who was a faithful man of God before he was a cultural icon. Today, the season between Thanksgiving and Christmas that many of us recognize as Advent is the biggest frenzy of retail spending. More than half of that, hundreds of billions of dollars a year, is spent as we celebrate the birth of the homeless Son of God in that stinky manger. (And he got only three measly presents. One of them was myrrh. What baby wants myrrh?) Hundreds of Christian congregations are now rethinking the Advent season as a time for compassion rather than consumption.
The original “Old St. Nick” who inspired the tradition of Santa Claus, was Nicholas, bishop of Myra in fourth-century Turkey. Little is known about his life except that he entrusted himself to Jesus at an early age and, when his parents died, gave all of their possessions to the poor. While serving as bishop, Nicholas learned of three girls who were going to be sold into slavery by their father. Moved to use the church’s wealth to ransom the lives of these little ones, he tossed three bags of gold through the family’s window. We recall this ancient Christmas gift, even as we remember that 1.2 million children are trafficked each year in the global sex trade today.
CAROLS
“The Twelve Days of Christmas” is not just the title of a fun song but also refers to the twelve-day celebration of the coming of Christ, from his birth, which is observed on December 25, until Epiphany, on January 6. This twelve-day celebration is often marked with the colors of gold and white, and dates back to the fourth century. Christmas is short for “Christ’s mass,” referring to the worship service that marks the birth of Christ. Celebrations during the season include the Feast of the Holy Innocents (December 28), when we remember that the joy of Christ’s coming was marked by genocide as Herod fearfully massacred other children in Bethlehem. We can remember that the coming of Christ is about God entering the mess of this world, from the stinky manger to the torturous cross.
Christmas Caroling has become a time-honored tradition in America. It’s roots, however, go back much farther than the birth of America. Back in the 1200s, St. Francis of Assisi began the tradition of injecting common songs with religious lyrics. Before this, songs of devotion to Christ were sung only in solemn Church services and in Latin, making it impossible for common, uneducated people to sing songs of joy to our Lord. What has now become a commonly accepted practice initially began as a way to help poor people participate in the worship of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ by singing joyfully.
Source: Book of Common Prayer
Hopefully these tidbits can help bring meaning and richness to the tradtions we practice each Advent season.
Stay tuned for more...
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