The Advent tradition is a religious celebration in preparation for the arrival (or “advent”) of the Christ Child (das Christkind) on the 25th day of December. The four weeks leading up to Christmas Eve are represented by four candles.
Today in German-speaking Europe many families set up an Advent wreath, or Adventskranz on the first Advent Sunday (the fourth before Christmas) to start off the Advent season. The picture on the left shows a typical evergreen Advent wreath with its four candles, one for each week of Advent. Traditional families gather around the wreath on each Advent Sunday to light the next candle and sing Christmas carols. This was even more important in the past, when the Christmas tree was usually reserved for a special unveiling only on Christmas Eve. Until then, the Advent wreath provided the evergreen look and aroma in the house.
All November I noticed things with four candles everywhere I went… wreathes, wrought iron stands, simple jars… all with four candles. I decided on fresh evergreen branches on a square advent platter instead of a wreath, and although you can’t see it, stuck cinnamon sticks all throughout. Each night at dinner we lit the candles and each Sunday night at dinnertime we lit an additional candle. I have the German words of a cute little song to sing when lighting the candle but we never quite learned it. Hopefully next year.
The kids and Chris and I were excited when President Uchdorf started talking about celebrating ‘Advent’ when he was a child, during his talk in the LDS Christmas Devotional. Now we are celebrating Advent too!
1 comment:
What a fun new tradition for you guys. I bet you have all kinds of new traditions this year. What great memories. I liked when President Utchdorf also mentioned the Grinch=)-we used that part for a FHE in December.
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