This story first appeared Dec. 1, 2024, on Reading for the Glory, where Molly Jean Doro serves as a contributor.
The season of Advent, which is comprised of the four Sundays before Christmas Day, begins today and marks the beginning of the Christian liturgical year. Advent is a season of reflection and anticipation designed to focus our attention on the Incarnation of our God and Savior Jesus. There is nothing in the world worth celebrating more than God himself taking on human flesh. This cataclysmic reality reminds us that our God keeps his promises. It is through the Incarnation that God begins the work of setting the world aright. Jesus came to make all things new. What a glorious reality to celebrate year after year! For this reason it is fitting that Advent begins Christian liturgical year.
The word “Advent” actually comes from the Latin word “adventus” which means “coming” or “arrival”, and is a translation of the Greek word “parousia” which can also mean “presence.” Advent is all about waiting and anticipation for what is to come, two concepts that are not popular in modern Western culture. We simply don’t like to wait for anything. Yet that is what God’s people did in their yearnings for the Messiah to come, and what we are called to do as we begin the liturgical year. We wait and anticipate the celebration of Jesus’ first coming (his Nativity) and Advent also reminds us that we are actively waiting for Jesus’ second coming, when he will finally arrive again and make all things right. During the season Advent various feast days are celebrated such as: St. Nicolas (Dec 6), St. Lucy (Dec 13), and St. Thomas the Apostle (Dec 21) to name a few. Although we think of the holiday season as a time of celebration and feasting, Advent is technically a season of fasting, similar to Lent. Many believers choose to fast in some way during Advent and break the fast during Christmastide beginning December 25.
Throughout the world millions of Christians celebrate Advent through religious and family traditions. Most families decorate their houses with Christmas trees, wreaths, and holly to signify the eternal life that believers are given through Jesus. Various foods, drinks, and candies are enjoyed as part of local and familial Advent traditions. Some of these includes giving children candy on the Feast Day of St. Nicholas (December 6) and cookies on the Feast Day of St. Lucy (December 13). Many families also incorporate the use of an Advent wreath consisting of five candles, one for each of the Sundays of Advent and the center Christ candle that is lit on Christmas Day.
Many of our readers likely already have their own traditions that are enjoyed during the holiday season. Some of these traditions may be local to one’s area, and others may be specific to family tradition handed down from previous generations. However, as Christmas becomes more and more commercialized and less about the Incarnation of Jesus, at least in the culture, it is important for followers of Jesus to add traditions that are rooted in Christian tradition. This may include adding celebrations for the feast days of St. Nicholas and St. Lucy instead of prioritizing Santa Claus. You may also include an Advent wreath or incorporate some sort of fasting into your Advent celebrations. Simply lighting a candle can symbolize Immanuel, God with us, the light of the world, who came as God incarnate and for whom we long to come again. For ways to incorporate these traditional celebrations into your family Advent traditions, please see the recommended reading section below.
As we mark the beginning of the liturgical year, we here at RFTG wish you and your family a blessed Advent and a Merry Christmas. May the Lord bless you during this season of anticipation. The holiday season can stir many emotions within us, some cheery and bright, but many resonating more with the yearning, groaning, longing, and awareness of the need of more of God’s presence associated with the season of Advent. The voices of our hearts join in the well-known hymn singing, “Oh come, oh come Immanuel, and ransom captive Israel. That mourns in lonely exile here, until the Son of God appear.” Be reminded of these words of promise and comfort from the prophet Isaiah:
“For thus says the One who is high and lifted up,
who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
‘I dwell in the high and holy place,
and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly,
and to revive the heart of the contrite.'”
Editor’s Note: Zach Kendrick also contributed to this article.
