What's Advent all about?

Advent was originally more like Lent, as there were fasts and things. But was also a time of preparation for Christmas. Now, when I say that, I don't mean it was originally a time to go out present shopping and hanging stockings and all that. It was really a time to remind people that Christmas was coming and get ready for it.

This may come as a surprise, but Christmas was not a popular religious holiday until St Francis came up with the Nativity scene and Christmas as a liturgical feast grew in popularity exponentially after that. Go do a Google image search of pre-Medieval Christian art and see how many depictions of Christmas scenes of a baby in a manger and all that there are. Very, very few. Of the major holidays, Christmas was simply not a big thing for the first 1000 years of Christianity. The popular ones were Easter/Pentecost/Annunciation and to an extent All Saints Day or the local patronal saint's feast day. Christmas was way down the totem pole of importance for most people.

In fact, Christmas was so neglected, the Pope had to periodically send out encyclicals and papal bulls reminding people and clergy to celebrate it. It's sort of like Ascension is today. It's so neglected most Dioceses (some exceptions like my Diocese) move it to the Sunday after Ascension and not actually on the day itself because no one really cares that much, and even then Ascension Sundays are pretty much like a normal Sunday. So, part of the evolution of Advent as a season of preparation was literally having people prepare and remind people that Christmas (you know that feast that no one cares about) is coming so do something.

So, this is sort of why I fudged a bit at the beginning of this by saying Advent was more like Lent. It was not a penitential season like Lent exactly, but there were some fasts and giving up of things. It was not necessarily about the theme of sin and redemption leading to Holy Week/Easter so much as reminding people, oh yeah, Christmas is coming and it is actually important. I know that is hard to fathom in a culture, particularly in the US, that starts putting Christmas stuff in stores the day after Halloween and plays Hallmark Christmas movies around the clock for months. Christmas in July is even a commercial thing. Our entire economy is fueled by Christmas spending. Hence the term "Black Friday"-if the economy can't turn a profit on the day after Thanksgiving, the economy is really already in or headed into the tank.

So, Advent is about preparation for Jesus' coming, both his earthly birth but also his second Advent or Coming at the end of time. This also spawned the relatively modern Christ the King Sunday (which is coming up on Sunday.) That idea of Jesus as the King who will come in clouds descending and separate the sheep from the goats kind of imagery was often rolled into Advent from All Saints day onward. That also appealed to the Medieval mind. So, Advent was a transition period between All Saints and Christmas that kind of fused the two feast days together in a cohesive whole.
 
 So, now, ironically, Advent holds almost the exact opposite purpose. It reminds people to wait for Christmas. Don't jump the shark and dive headlong into secular Christmas glitter but wait a little bit so that when Christmas actually arrives, it has some spiritual meaning and not just a commercial gluttony of sentimentalism and fluffery. There is something to be said for moderation and patience in anticipation of a joyous event. If you open all your birthday presents a month before your birthday, there's really nothing much left on your actual birthday.

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