Understanding Advent: Preparing for Christmas

If you have ever seen a wreath with four candles appear in a church in late November and wondered what is Advent, the short answer is in the word itself. Advent comes from the Latin adventus, a coming or arrival. It is the season in which Christians prepare for the coming of Christ, and it opens the church year rather than closing it.

A Season with Two Directions

Advent looks in two directions at once, which is what makes it unusual. It looks backward to the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, and it looks forward to his promised return. Older devotional writing often adds a third: his continual coming into the life of the believer through grace.

The Catholic Encyclopedia entry on Advent spells out this threefold emphasis, connecting the season to the historical incarnation, to Christ's spiritual presence, and to the final judgment. That double or triple focus explains why the readings of the first Advent Sunday in many traditions are not gentle and nostalgic but apocalyptic. The season begins with the end of all things and only gradually turns toward Bethlehem.

Origins and History

The origins are genuinely obscure. No document records a founding decision, and the same encyclopedia entry states plainly that it cannot be determined with any certainty when Advent was first introduced. What survives are scattered traces.

A synod at Saragossa in Spain in 380 required the faithful to attend church daily from December 17 to Epiphany, which suggests a preparatory period was already forming. In Gaul, a longer forty day fast beginning around the feast of Saint Martin on November 11 developed and is sometimes called Saint Martin's Lent. In Rome the season took a shorter and less penitential form. The Gelasian Sacramentary reflects five Sundays; the reduction to the current four is generally attributed to Gregory VII in the late eleventh century.

Eastern Christianity developed its own preparation, commonly a forty day Nativity Fast beginning in mid November, which remains stricter than the Western observance in most places.

The Wreath and the Candles

The Advent wreath is much younger than the season. Its modern form is usually traced to the Lutheran pastor Johann Hinrich Wichern, who in nineteenth century Hamburg placed candles on a wheel to help children at his mission count the days to Christmas. His original had many candles; the simplified four candle version spread across denominations in the twentieth century and is now used in Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist, and many evangelical settings.

Custom rather than rule governs the details. Three candles are commonly purple or blue and one rose or pink, the pink one lit on the third Sunday, traditionally called Gaudete Sunday from the Latin for rejoice. Many families name the candles for hope, peace, joy, and love, and a white candle in the center is often lit on Christmas Day. Advent calendars with daily doors are another nineteenth century German innovation.

How to Observe It

Advent has always carried a lighter penitential character than Lent, but it is a season of restraint. In many churches the Gloria is omitted, decoration is sparse, and music is quieter until Christmas arrives. The Church of England's guide to the church's year provides distinct prayers, prefaces, and blessings for Advent, keeping it clearly separate from the Christmas season that follows.

That separation is the practical challenge for most people. The surrounding culture starts celebrating Christmas in November and stops abruptly on December 26, which is roughly the inverse of the church calendar, where Christmas begins on December 25 and continues for twelve days.

Observing Advent well does not require elaborate machinery. Many households light a candle before a meal, read a short passage from Isaiah or the Gospels, and keep some form of quiet. Some choose a modest fast or a discipline of giving. The Second Vatican Council's constitution on the liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, emphasizes that the cycle of seasons is meant to unfold the mystery of Christ across the year rather than to crowd it into single days, and Advent is a clear example of that principle at work.

The season's gift is permission to wait. In a month organized around hurry, Advent insists that anticipation is itself a spiritual discipline, and that some things are worth preparing for slowly.