Advent Series 1: What is Advent?

After Thanksgiving, the church services my family attended became focused on the Advent season, the hangings and banners were changed to reflect the Christmas season, but also reflected the colors blue and purple, which symbolized royalty, penitence, and fasting. Each Sunday, all the kids would form a processional from the back of the church up the center aisle to light the advent candles. One year I even got to light one of the Advent candles as we all proceeded down the center aisle singing:

Light the Advent Candle one,

Now the waiting has begun,

We have started on our way,

Time to think of Christmas day.

Candle, candle burning bright

Shining in the cold winter night

Candle, candle burning bright,

Fill our hearts with Christmas light

Light the Advent Candle two,

Think of humble shepherds who,

Filled with wonder at the sight,

Of the child on Christmas Night.

Light the Advent Candle three,

Think of heavenly harmony

Angels singing “Peace on Earth”

At the Blessed Savior’s birth.

Light the Advent Candle four,

Think of Joy forever more,

Christ child in a stable born

Gift of love that Christmas morn.

Light the Christmas candles now,

Sing of donkey, sheep, and cow,

Birthday candles for the king,

Let the alleluias ring!

Good times. As an adult, I have come to find that advent has a far deeper meaning and focus than Christ’s incarnation. Advent is when we prepare our heart, mind, and soul, for our coming King. Over the next few weeks, I will discuss the Advent candles, their meanings, how the season of Advent relates to Christmas, and how we are to examine our own hearts and minds regarding our expectations for our coming King.

According to the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Advent is, “the season of the ecclesiastical year when the church prepares to celebrate the birth or coming (Greek: adventus) of Jesus Christ (Christmas) and engages in self-examination in expectation of his second coming in glory to judge the living and the dead.”[1] Therefore, as we celebrate the first coming of our Lord and Savior, we also look forward to His second coming in glory.

Advent always begins on the Sunday nearest St. Andrew’s Day (November 30^th), and includes four Sundays. This year it will begin on December 2^nd, and end on December 23. The Christmas season follows Advent and begins on December 24^th and goes until January 5^th (twelve days – hence The Twelve Days of Christmas). Christmas season is then followed by Epiphany, on January 6^th, which extends until Ash Wednesday (February 13, 2013), and the beginning of the Lent season. Therefore the entire Christmas season is comprised of the three sub-seasons of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany. And it doesn’t just end on December 26^th, but carries through until February! So, really, we can play Christmas music up until Valentine’s Day!

As we enter into the season of Advent., let us all examine our hearts, rid ourselves of bitterness through forgiveness, and focus on what our earthly Christmas traditions reflect in heaven as we wait for Christmas morning to celebrate the first advent of our king, and look forward to His next coming.

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[1] Peter Toon, “Advent” in The Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 2^nd ed. Ed. Walter A. Elwell (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2001), 27.