Some Customs of Advent (Part 1)

Happy New Year! Today, the First Sunday of Advent marks the start of the Church’s new Liturgical Year.

Advent is a curious season. It is the beginning of the liturgical year, and yet its first Gospel is about the end of the world. It marks a fresh start, and yet it opens by virtually repeating one of the readings from the Sunday before. It is draped in the penitential color of violet yet is irrepressibly joyful. It awaits the coming of the Messiah, who already came two thousand years ago. During Mass, the Gloria is suppressed, but outside Mass, there are delicious treats, Yuletide drinks, and joyous caroling.

It is a time of seemingly contradictory visions, one that looks to what has already happened and also to what is yet to come. Advent is called such after the “adventus”, or coming of Jesus Christ as an infant in Bethlehem, but this ritual remembrance of Our Lord’s first coming is meant to recall and even bring about two others: His coming into our hearts spiritually and His coming in judgment at history’s end. By truly absorbing the Nativity of the Son of God, we can be assured of the former and prepared for the latter.

Many Catholics are surprised to learn that the first Advent wreath or Advent crown was invented by sixteenth-century Lutherans in eastern Germany. The wreath as we know it today, however, did not take shape until a nineteenth-century German pastor, tired of answering children’s questions if Christmas was here yet, took an old cartwheel and attached to it twenty small red candles (symbolizing Saturday and weekdays) and four large white candles (the Sundays of Advent).

After it was simplified into the four-candle wreath with which we are now familiar, the custom spread to most Christian communities in Europe, Canada, and America, though not as fast as you might think: even into the 1940s, it was virtually unknown in the United States. The symbolism of the Advent wreath is simple but effective. The wreath’s circular shape recalls the crown of Christ the King or the eternity of the Trinity and betokens the “fulfillment of time” that all three of His comings bring about. The evergreen is an ancient symbol of hope and everlasting life. The candles represent the hearts of the elect burning for their Savior, as well as the prophets whose inspired words pierced the darkness in which mankind was enveloped while waiting for the Messiah.