Image: istockphoto.com (Advent)
Recently I received an email from my the waste company I subscribe to offering me the perfect solution for my planning and pre-Christmas clear-out…should I have any. This points to the concern so many of us have about getting ready for Christmas and the real panic experienced by some. I was talking to a friend of mine who will be cooking for eleven people and he said he feels really stressed out on Christmas Eve anticipating how things will unfold on the following day.
Many families find themselves faced with an almost relentless pressure to deliver the perfect Christmas, complete with decorations, which extend even into the garden, gourmet foods, and a pile of presents under the glittering tree. Marks and Spencer retailers have tapped into this pre-holiday frenzy expertly in the first of their series of adverts for Christmas. Iconic comedienne, Dawn French is seen walking down a snowy street complaining about being exhausted. When she arrives back home, she becomes even more dejected because she still has ‘so much to do’. Enter the Marks and Spencer fairy who helps Dawn whip up the perfect Christmas spread in no time.
Office parties are already in full swing, dates having been booked well in advance since it is so difficult to be accommodated in pubs and restaurants during the festive season. People are planning their Christmas outfits for the day itself or the Christmas ‘nights-out’; advertisers have a multitude of Christmas Party Outfits for women with dazzling displays of sequins and velvet. When I was young, a long time ago now, I can remember how the Chart Christmas Number 1 was eagerly anticipated, and the soaps always had a big Christmas ‘Story’, usually around revelations of who had been unfaithful to their partners!
The Meaning Obscured
All of these ‘concerns’ completely miss the point that Christmas is first and foremost a religious feast. It is a sad fact that that aspect of the days leading to the 25th is becoming even more obliterated as each year passes. For Christians, these steps have a special meaning and a particular name, ADVENT. The word comes from the Latin word meaning arrival. The Church took the weeks of preparation from the Jewish tradition which has periods of preparation before each of their important feast days. The observation dates back to the fourth century.
It is an interesting paradox that Christians are encouraged to fast at this time, not just in order to focus on repentance and prayer, but also as a contrast to the excessive emphasis on drink and over-indulgence, which is so much a feature of the commercial build-up to Christians. The idea is to focus our thinking on what lies at the heart of Christmas, rather than be seduced by outer trimmings which inherently have no meaning and serve only to distract.
This aspect of Advent is to a great extent, overshadowed by commercial interests which bully us into a celebratory mood two months before the actual day. Advent is smothered beneath the sheer weight of things to get and do. Every day is Christmas and there is no sense of ‘giving anything up’; rather we are encouraged to indulge ourselves and others well in advance of the 25th. The day itself seems to be more about the dinner and the opening of the presents rather than the birth of Jesus. It is a sad fact that a lot of people see Christmas as a purely secular event because they have no knowledge of or interest in religion.
Different For Christians
According to Catholic author Jennifer Gregory Miller, Advent has a threefold focus, ‘Contemplating him in history at Bethlehem; receiving him in mystery in the Eucharist; and our personal preparation for his Second Coming…’
Advent means coming; the past coming of Jesus Christ at the first Christmas; the future coming of Christ at the end of life; and the everyday coming of Christ in a daily relationship.
The readings and practices of the Advent season emphasize both penitence and the joyful expectation of the Lord’s coming. From the First Sunday of Advent to 16 December, the liturgical emphasis is on penitence and preparation for the second coming – with readings centered around the messianic prophecies of John the Baptist and Isaiah, and gospel selections that depict Jesus as the fulfillment of those prophecies. Also, during this period, violet vestments are worn by the clergy (rose vestments are also acceptable on the Third or Gaudete Sunday) further emphasizing the theme of repentance. Integral to the experience is the preparation within, so the little child born in the manger will also be born in our hearts.
Hope is the great virtue of Advent. Readings from Isaiah fill us with images of hope. Swords will be changed into ploughshares. The wolf will lie down with the lamb. A little child will lead them. Advent is our time to prepare to meet him, to reflect, to pray, to abstain, while waiting in anticipation, knowing that even in the darkest and coldest winter there is hope.
Written by Marie–Therese Cryan