December 
                                                                          
                                                                           Advent

The word Advent is from the Latin adventus for "coming" and is associated with the four weeks of preparation for Christmas. Advent always contains for Sundays, beginning on the Sunday nearest the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle, (November 30) and continuing until December 24. It blends  together a penitential spirit, very similar to Lent, a liturgical theme of preparation for the Second and Final Coming on the Lord, called the Parousia, and a joyful theme of getting ready for the Bethlehem event.

Since the 900s Advent has been considered the beginning of the Church year. This does not mean that Advent is the most important time of the year. Easter has always had this honor.

The traditional color of Advent is purple or violet which symbolizes the penitential spirit. Religious traditions associated with Advent express all these themes.

                                                                          Advent Wreath

The origins of the Advent wreath are found in the folk practices of the pre-Christian Germanic peoples who, during the cold December darkness of Eastern Europe, gathered wreaths of evergreen and lighted fires as signs of hope in a coming spring and renewed light.

Christians kept these popular traditions alive, and by the 16th century Catholics and Protestants throughout Germany used these symbols to celebrate their Advent hope in Christ, the everlasting Light. From Germany the use of the Advent wreath spread to other parts of the Christian world.

Traditionally, the wreath is made of four candles in a circle of evergreens. Three candles are violet and the fourth is rose, but four white or four violet candles can also be used. Each day at home, the candles are lighted, perhaps before the evening meal--one candle the first week, then another each succeeding week until December 25th. A short prayer may accompany the lighting. www.google.com/adventwreath-customsandprayers

                                                                 Prayer of the First Week of Advent

O Emmanuel, Jesus Christ, desire of every nation, Savior of all peoples, come and dwell among us.