Advent
- The Advent Calendar
- The meanind of Advent
- Advent Candles
- Advent Wreath
As a child I always appreciated the time just past Thanksgiving. The time following Thanksgiving was followed by a family tradition that my family followed which was the advent calender. The calendar was only for the month of december, and it was a board that was thick because it had pockets. The pockets were covered with a number that corresponded to the days of the month of December. The special thing about this is that behind each day of the month there was a treat, usually a chocolate. Each day of the month you open a day and retrieve the treasure. The picture below is one that I may have used growing up.
The Advent Calendar
I will get into the actual meaning behind the Advent, which is part of the Christian faith. Now I want to dig into the tradition of these advent calendars and how they have progressed. A child, I was, with warmth in my heart from this special treat behind the calendar of pockets. This tradition, just as many modernizations, has grown from the simple little chocolate to so many options.
The modern day coffee pod, whether Nespresso or Keurig, presents a nice little package for an adult advent calendar treat. Below you can see both a Keurig Advent, a tea advent, and a Nespresso Advent Calendar.
The meaning of advent
The advent in definition is the anticipation of the Coming of Christ. The advent time is celebrated in two parts. The first is the anticipation of Christs birth while the second is in anticipation of His second coming. Christ birth is the fulfillment of the prophesy of one to come and take the sins of the world. He would do this would happen through His perfect life being sacrificed in His death on the cross.It is important that Christs life was with no sin in order to be the final sacrifice. In Jewish law a sacrifice, which was offered for the sins of the people, was offered. The sacrifice needed to be pure, the best with no defect. This sacrifice was offered by the high priest.
The Jewish people were always waiting for the coming of a savior. The one that would indeed be this final payment. The payment would be the equivalent of paying for all of our financial needs forever. The difference being that it was a one time gift that if accepted would provide atonement or cleansing of sin.
Advent calendars are a picture of the anticipation of the gift. Each day represents the gift that we recieve and yet did nothing to deserve the special treat. The meaning of advent is important to the Christian faith.
The traditions of advent are only a representation or a special reminder to what it is meant to mean. The sad fact is that the advent calendars and many of the traditions associated with Christmas are presented and yet provide little remembrance of the deeper meaning, and are more recieved as a gift that makes us feel good.
The amazing part of this is this is that it is truly Gods love that he pours His love out even if we arent fully devoted or focused to Him. He has to because He can't contradict who and what He represents. In many ways the Jewish were waiting for their king/savior and missed out on when He came. Christians also anticipate His second coming and yet miss out on many of the blessings He has for us each day.
Advent Wreath and Candles
I remember in my Church we had advent candles that we would light the Sundays leading up to Christmas as part of the Church service. They sat within a wreath. The wreath merely represented the season of Christmas and the candles each have a meaning.
- The first candle symbolizes hope and is called the "Prophet’s Candle." The prophets of the Old Testament, especially Isaiah, waited in hope for the Messiah’s arrival. The purple color symbolizes royalty, repentance, and fasting.
- The second candle represents faith and is called "Bethlehem’s Candle." Micah had foretold that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, which is also the birthplace of King David. The second candle is also purple to symbolize preparation for the coming king.
- The third candle symbolizes joy and is called the "Shepherd’s Candle." To the shepherd’s great joy, the angels announced that Jesus came for humble, unimportant people like them, too. In liturgy, the color rose signifies joy. This candle is colored pink to represent joyfulness and rejoicing.
- The fourth candle represents peace and is called the "Angel’s Candle." The angels announced that Jesus came to bring peace--He came to bring people close to God and to each other again. This color is also purple to represent the culmination of love through the Messiah.
- The (optional) fifth candle represents light and purity and is called "Christ’s candle." It is placed in the middle and is lit on Christmas Day. This candle is white to represent pure light and victory
I always cherished the Christmas eve service as it was most often a candlight service. This would be a part after the message where the lights would be turned down, the ushers would light a candle at the end of each row of seats and each person would light the one next to them until the sanctuary would be filled with light from these candles which would represent Christ light coming into the world with faith, hope, joy and peace.
This advent season enjoy a cup of coffee, tea, nip or chocolate, glass of wine, jewelry or lego from your advent calendar or one of the almost endless ideas that fill these advent calendars. Also remember Christ is the reason for us to recieve the most precious gift, not to compare with a great advent gift or Christmas gift of unspeakable value, that one might recieve. Love from a most Holy God. All of these were available on Amazon.
For some great seafood recipes that make dinners special around Christmas can be found in our Post for "Feast of the Seven Fishes"