Advent is a four-week long period of preparation for Christmas, and the word Advent means "coming." It originally was used to describe Christmas itself, but later came to mean the time of preparation for Christmas.
Advent, within the Roman church, is a confusing time because its origins are confusing. When Christmas was created (around the middle of the fourth century) it was a special feast celebrated in Rome. It took another two or three centuries for the concept to spread out to Gaul and the Germanic countries. When it got to Gaul, the proto-French gave it their own flavor.
In the year 490, Bishop Perpetuus of Tours ordered a three-day fast every week from the Feast of St. Martin (Nov. 11) until Christmas. This period was called the Quadragesima Sancti Martini (40 Days Fast of St. Martin.) The habit of fasting in the period before Christmas spread throughout the Gothic and Germanic countries.
But in Rome, where Christmas was a time of rejoicing, they celebrated (starting in the 6th Century) a four or five week period of joy and festivities in preparation for Christmas.
Eventually, the two concepts had to get together. In the 13th century, the two ideas were combined: into a four-week partial fast, and the ceremonies have remained essentially schizophrenic to this day.
The fast of Advent was originally fairly strict. In 1025, the Bishop Burchard of Worms ruled: "In the Quadragesima before Christmas you must abstain from wine, ale, honey-beer, meats, fats, cheese, and from fat fish." You were also prohibited from taking part in any weddings, amusements, travel for pleasure, and from sex during the entire seven weeks of Advent.
Gradually the fast was reduced, first to two days a week, and now to only token fasting.
But why the confused stature of the holiday? Why happiness in some quarters and sadness in others? The official theological explanation is simply this: Originally, Advent applied only to the first "coming" of Jesus and thus was a time of rejoicing. But later, in the Roman provinces, Advent came to be taken as a time of preparation for the second coming, the Judgement Day, and thus became a time of penitence and fasting.
The only problem with this, from a theological standpoint, is that the church has always celebrated a season honoring the second coming of Christ, and it occurs after Christmas, not before.
The answer to the problem of why Advent has been celebrated so differently in the church also brings us to this morning's topic, the modern meaning of Advent. For the answer lies not in the theologies of the church, but in the ancient cultures over which the church overlay its theologies.
In Rome, Christmas was used to cover up the ancient festivities of Saturnalia, a time of merry-making, feasting, gift-giving, costumes and general licentiousness. Thus, the Roman festival of Christmas maintained this festival character.
But in the Gotho-Germanic lands -- France, Spain, Germany -- Christmas came at the time of the Yule, the turning of the sun's wheel in the sky. And the Day of Yule (the rebirth of the sun) was a time of joy and happiness, but the month before -- the month of cold, deprivation, and of the slow death of the sun as it sunk lower in the sky each day -- was a time of sadness and fear.
Thus the provinces kept the fasting character of their holiday while the Romans kept the feasting character of theirs!
Let's look at some of the customs of advent:
The Advent Wreath. This one you undoubtedly know of. In the month before Christmas, it is customary to put up a wreath, usually on the front door. The custom arose among the Lutherans in Germany but has spread throughout Europe and to the U.S. Originally, the wreath was a circle of evergreens (yew, fir or laurel) and it was placed either on the table or hung from the ceiling. Four candles were fastened to each side of the wreath. Each Sunday of Advent, one candle was lit.
Though the Church has tried hard to give this custom a Christian meaning, the ancient pagan symbol is still readily apparent. The circle represented the wheel of the sun (Yule) and the candles were part of the lights ceremonies of all northern countries in the period before Yuletide. Our northern ancestors would light candles, bonfires (the Yule log), and torches in honor of the dying sun.
Today's Christmas tree is also a direct descendent of the Advent wreath -- with lights and all.
Children's Letters. Another aspect of Advent was the writing of letters by children, who would leave the letters on the window sill on December 5 (the eve of St. Nicholas Day.) The Church pretended they were written to the child Jesus and were supposed to be taken up to heaven either by St. Nicholas or by angels.
Today, the letters are written directly to St. Nick and are mailed to the North Pole! This is probably much closer to ancient tradition than the church version. St. Nick to our northern ancestors was none other than Thor, who lived in Asgard (somewhere around the north pole) and would bring gifts to children down the chimney on the day of Yule!
Driving the Demons Away. This ancient custom, the clanging of cymbals, and the firing of fireworks, is maintained by the church in a couple of ways. One is the Novena of the Holy Child (La Novena del Nino) celebrated in Latin America. For nine days before Christmas, the children attend services and then go out at night and fire fireworks and make noises. In Central Europe, this period is called the Golden Nights, a festive season of lights and noise making, always taking place after dark. In other parts of Europe, the festivities begin on Dec. 21 (the Feast of St. Thomas the Apostle) with costumes, cracking of whips, ringing of bells and parades of figures in horrible costumes. In these places, the nights before Christmas are called the "Rough Nights," and feature a repeat of the Dec. 21 parades.
All of these, of course, never had any significance as periods of "driving demons away." That is a church tradition. In the earliest times, noise makers and fires were used to symbolically drive the night or winternight away, to keep it from eating the sun, swallowing it whole and leaving the world to freeze into eternal winter. The burning of the Yule log and the making of noise thus had religious significance to our ancestors.
As they obviously had to the Christianized pagans of Europe who insisted on keeping the ancient traditions long after the Church theoretically abolished paganism.
Today's celebration of Advent and Christmas is probably as close to the ancient pagan celebration of Yule as it could possibly be. We have maintained the figure of Thor (changing his name to Santa). We still have the Yule log and the wreath and the lights. We have the carolling (noise making) on the evenings before Christmas. We have the giving of gifts on Yule day.
Several years ago, I formed an organization called the "National Keep Christ Out of X-mas Committee," to point out the essential paganism of the holidays as a positive spiritual and cultural movement.
For the holidays do have religious and spiritual connotations far beyond that of the thin Christian veneer the Church has labored so long to put on Yule-tide.
The ancient pagan recognition of the power of the seasons and the overwhelming forces of nature is an important consideration for modern humans. The spiritual implications of our essential oneness with all of nature, with all other humans, all other living things and with the inanimate universe as well, are brought out by this pagan season too. Our ancestors did not just sit back and complain about the weather -- they took part in it! By their actions -- the lighting of fires, the making of noise, the display of evergreens -- they made an existential statement!
They took responsibility for doing something about the end of the world and -- like the man who snapped his fingers all the time to keep away tigers -- it worked! You don't see any ends of the world around do you? Every year the sun was reborn. Every year, winter began to recede. Every year, the spring came again with warmth, new growth, new life.
Advent, the beginning of the month of Yule (December) was indeed a time of preparation, a time of awe, a time of honoring the annual change of seasons.
If you know any pagans, and you wonder why they so enthusiastically celebrate what you've been taught was a Christian holiday, wonder no longer!
Yule was originally our holiday -- and it still is!
Blessed Be!