There's
a real danger with Advent. The danger is of a month-long build-up to
one day which can end up being a disappointment. A lot of us will have
nightmare images of children wound up into a frenzy of anticipation
based on the eventual arrival of presents. While it's
perfectly possible to enjoy December the 25th as the end of Christmas,
we feel this is putting too much pressure on one day and misses out on
the benefits of a longer Christmas festival. So where does this leave
Advent?  Traditionally,
Advent is a time of preparation and fasting. Many Christians still see
it as such, particularly the Orthodox denominations for whom Advent is
a period similar to Lent. In JS Bach's Leipzig in the early 1700s,
Advent was a time during which no instrumental music was permitted in
church. This must have made his Christmas
Oratorio and Christmas
cantatas even more imposing and breathtaking.
A
simple thing you could do, like in Lent, is give something up
for
Advent or if you prefer take on something new. You could look at
something you spend money on regularly, give it up for Advent, and put
the money you save towards your Christmas celebrations. You could give
up meat or alcohol and conclude the period with a celebratory meal,
perhaps at sundown on Christmas Eve. Setting time aside during Advent
could give you the opportunity to make more home-made gifts or food.
Autumn
and Winter - the Turn of the Year  There
are plenty of opportunities for celebration in the time between the end
of Summer and Christmas. Here are a few dates when any fasting rules
could be relaxed or which provide occasions to look forward to in their
own right, rather than being part of the anticipation of Christmas Day.
It's a way to take some of the pressure off that one day which can
often not live up to the expectation. The dates below are an
opportunity to mark a formal beginning of the season of waiting and a
celebration for each week of Advent.
November
the 11th: Martinmas In
pre-Reformation England and throughout Europe, Martinmas was the feast
immediatly before Advent and by extension the beginning of
Winter  St Martin was a particularly
important medieval saint. He
is most famous for two episodes. A soldier, he is remembered
for refusing to fight after his conversion to Christianity, proclaiming
that as a 'soldier of Christ' he couldn't fight. The episode most
frequently depicted throughout the medieval period is his response to a
poor man's need, cutting his cloak in two and sharing it equally
between the two of them (see the fresco from Assisi by Simone Martini
to the left).
If your interests lie in
promoting
peace, then St Martin's day is a day on which you could think about how
to put this into practice. Whether you are a Christian or not, the
familiar carols about peace at Christmas time might have more immediate
relevance. The
story of St Martin and his
cloak has
been a
symbol of charity for Christians throughout the Middle Ages up to the
present day. When one of the main criticisms being levelled at the way
we do Christmas in our age is its emphasis on consuming and acquiring,
seeing Advent as a time for thinking about charity and poverty may lead
to a more healthy and rounded balance.
Sunday
Before Advent: Stir Up Sunday Christmas
Pudding has to be one of the greatest contributions of
England to the
season. And this is the traditional date for making the pudding and the
all-important stirring. Plum Pudding was also one of the character's in
Ben Jonson's Christmas Masque, which also features an early version of Father Christmas. For more on
the Christmas Pudding, follow this link. For a great Christmas Pud
recipe, take this link.
From
December the 1st: Advent Crown & Advent Calendars Advent
Calendars are something that contribute to the sense of Advent as a
season, although they can just function as a countdown to Christmas.  Our
Advent tradition is a very recent one. Having fallen in love with the
beautiful wooden calendar to the left, we then had to
decide what to do with it. It comes with 24 lovely little wooden
decorations for hanging on the calendar itself. We got hold of mini
squares of Green & Black's chocolate, but then knew that it
meant
either keeping the calendar out of reach or somehow stopping the whole
thing being raided too soon. So we made up a story around it. A very
simple one! Each night Father Christmas' elves visit and leave a
present for the next day. So each morning of Advent we'd ask the
children if they thought the elves had been, open the door on the
calendar, dish out the chocolate and hang the decoration on an
appropriate peg. It's been a nice addition to our festive traditions.
For
years, we burnt down a numbered candle, generally during the dark
Winter evenings, which was quite a calm way of marking the passing of
Advent. On Blue Peter
they made an advent crown with four weekly candles on an arrangement of
coat hangers and tinsel. I've only met one person who ever made this.
But they had something similar at the church I grew up going to, with a
candle lit for each Sunday in Advent.
December
the 6th: St
Nicholas' Day  This
is Father
Christmas'
official day and still a very big deal in northern
Europe, particularly The Netherlands and Germany. It's a day for a
party (see Jan Steen's Feast
of St Nicholas, left), songs, special food and presents,
the day when Saint Nicholas
arrives upon his horse with his helper Zwarte Piet at his side on his
ship from Spain. Leave out root vegetables in shoes outside the room
where you're having the party - a snack for the horse. Sinterklaas then
will recite a poem about each person at the party, on the theme of
whether they've been good or bad - as a result of this Zwarte Piet will
either dole out sweets or a gentle tap with his stick. Read more about Sinterklaas history here and the customs here.
The traditional
biscuits served in the Netherlands, pepernoten and speculaas, are
spicy
and sweet. It's also a good occasion for serving mulled wine to any
adults present.
December
the 13th: Sankta Lucia A
Catholic tradition that survived the Reformation in Scandinavia,
particularly in Sweden. Saint Lucy's day is also celebrated in the
south of Europe, but her association with light makes her particularly
appropriate for the dark days of a Northern winter. The tradition in
Sweden, dating from the beginning of the nineteenth century at least,
is for the eldest girl in a family to wear a crown of lighted candles
and bring in special food to the accompaniment of the traditional
Neapolitan song, Sancta Lucia. The words used vary and include Sankta
Lucia, ljusklara hägring (Saint Lucy, Bright Illusion).
In present day Sweden a national Lucia is chosen to represent
festivities and celebratory parties are held across the country.
December
the 21st: Midwinter
or St Thomas' Day  The
shortest day falls on the 21st of December, which is also the feast day
of St Thomas, of doubting fame. This could be a good day to put up your
Christmas Tree, if you've managed to wait this long and you don't want
to hold out until Christmas Eve. In England it was the day for a
visiting custom, known as 'Thomassing', where the poor of the parish
would visit their more prosperous neighbours and receive alms in the
form of food for the winter. It's a good day to put up the Christmas
Tree, to drink a toast to the shortest day and celebrate the light that
will start to make a comeback after the darkest day of winter
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