Advent 2020

What is Advent? (Reblogged from here and here)

The word Advent comes from the Latin word for “arrival”: adventus. The celebration of Advent, whether with wreaths in church or calendars at home, marks the beginning of the Christmas period. It’s one of the major seasons celebrated by most Christian churches in the Western tradition: Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Episcopalians, Lutherans, and many additional Protestant churches mark the roughly month-long period with special observance.

Most Advent calendars start on December 1st, but the actual first day of the Advent season changes every year. In 2020, that day is November 29th. In 2021, it will be November 28th. The final day is the same every year: December 24th, Christmas Eve — though many calendars run through Christmas Day.

The reason for the shifting start date is somewhat straightforward: as celebrated by Christian churches in the Western tradition (as opposed to Eastern Orthodox churches, which keep a different calendar), the season of Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas and is celebrated on each successive Sunday leading up to Christmas.

Once Advent finishes, the 12 days of Christmas start... It is the period that in Christian theology marks the span between the birth of Christ and the coming of the Magi, the three wise men. It begins on December 25 (Christmas) and runs through January 6th (the Epiphany, sometimes also called Three Kings' Day).

There are always four Sundays during Advent prior to Christmas, but Christmas could be any day of the week — which means the distance between the fourth Sunday of Advent and Christmas Day varies. So the length of the season shifts from year to year: In 2016, Christmas fell on a Sunday, which means the season stretched over a total of 28 days. In 2019, it was 24 days long. In 2020, it’s 26 days long.

Advent calendars, though, are more consistent. They’re all set up for a 24- or 25-day season, beginning December 1st and ending on Christmas Eve or, sometimes, Christmas Day. The reason for this is practical: since the length of the Advent season changes from year to year, it’s easier to pick a fixed number of days for a calendar that can be reproduced or reused every season. And Advent calendars are reused all the time.

On each of the four Sundays of Advent, the corresponding number of candles are lit: one on the first Sunday, two on the second, and so on. If there’s a rose candle (which is meant to symbolize joy), it’s lit on the third Sunday, which is around the midpoint of Advent, a time to celebrate that the waiting is nearing its close.

As with pretty much every Christmas custom, though, Advent doesn’t just belong to Christians who celebrate it — it has expanded to include everyone who takes part in the holiday, whatever meaning they take from it. Every Advent observance, regardless of whether it includes a religious element, touches on a need to have a bit of beauty each day during the season. And it’s all in anticipation of future joy.

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