Advent is the season observed in many Christian churches as a time of waiting and preparation to celebrate Jesus' Birth at Christmas and the return of Jesus at the second coming. This term is a version of the Latin word meaning "coming". The term "Advent" is also used in Eastern Orthodox for 40 days of Nativity Fast, which has a different practice from that in the West.
Latin adventus is a Greek translation of parousia , commonly used to refer to the coming of Christ Second. For Christians, the Advent season anticipates the coming of Christ from three different perspectives. "Since the time of Bernard of Clairvaux (d.1153) Christians have spoken of the three comings of Christ: in the flesh of Bethlehem, in our hearts every day, and in glory in the last days." The season offers an opportunity to share in the ancient longing for the coming of the Messiah, and to be alert to His Second Coming.
Advent is the beginning of the Western liturgical year and begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas (sometimes known as Advent Sunday), the closest Sunday to St. John's Day. Andrew ( 30 November ), in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, the Western Rite of the Orthodox Church, and in the Anglican, Lutheran, Moravian, Presbyterian, and Methodist calendars. In the Ambrosian Rite and Mozarabic Rites of the Catholic Church, the Adventists begin on the sixth Sunday before Christmas, Sunday after St. John's Day. Martin ( November 11 ).
Adventist practices include keeping an Advent calendar, lighting Advent's wreaths, praying Adventist worship, building a Chrismon tree, lighting Christingle, and other ways of preparing Christmas, such as preparing Christmas decorations, a custom sometimes liturgically performed through green ceremonial hangings. The equivalent of Advent in Eastern Christianity is called Nativity Fast, but differs in length and obedience, and does not begin the liturgical church year as it is in the West. The Eastern Nativity Fast does not use the parousia equivalent in its preparatory service.
Video Advent
History
It is not known when the preparatory period for Christmas that is now called the first Advent started - it must have existed from around 480 - and the novelty introduced by the Council of Tours of 567 is to instruct the monks to fast every day from December to Christmas. Some even say it goes back to the Twelve Apostles or that it was founded by Saint Peter. This has led to the conclusion that "it is impossible to claim with confidence a reliable explanation of the origin of Advent".
Associated with Advent is a fasting period, also known as Nativity Fast or Fast of December.
According to some sources, the Adventist celebrations began in the fifth century when Bishop Perpetuus directed it began with the feast of St. Martin, November 11, to Christmas, one fast three times per week; this is why Advent is also named Lent of St. Martin. According to historians, this practice remained confined to the diocese of Tours until the sixth century.
But the Macon council held in 581 adopted the practice in Tours and soon all of France observed three days of fasting a week from the Santa Martin party to Christmas. The most obedient congregation in some countries exceeds the conditions adopted by the Council of Macon, and fasts every day of Advent. The Gregory's Great Homilies at the end of the sixth century show four weeks to the Seventh-day Adventist liturgy, but without fast observance. However, under Charlemagne in the ninth century, the writings claim that fasting is still widely observed.
In the thirteenth century, Adventist fasts were not common even though, according to Durand of Mende, fasting was still generally observed. As quoted in bull canonization of St. Louis, the spirit he observed by fasting is no longer a habit observed by very pious Christians. It was then limited to the period from St. Andrew to Christmas, for the apostle's solemnity was more universal than St. Peter's. Martin. When Pope Urban V rose to the papal seat in 1362, he only forced the people in his palace to abstain but there was no question of fasting. It was customary in Rome to observe five weeks of Advent before Christmas. This is especially discussed in the Sacrament of St. Gregory. Ambrosiana or Milan's Liturgy has six. The Greeks did not show any real consistency; Advent is an optional fasting that some begin on November 15, while others begin on December 6 or just a few days before Christmas.
The Catholic Church, for centuries, has started the Advent season on the fourth Sunday before Christmas and is not fasting or abstinence observed. There is no canonical punishment attached to the neglect of Adventist practices. The Church sometimes refuses to exercise the sacrament of marriage during Advent, because of the joy associated with the celebration.
The Seventh-day Adventist Liturgy remained unchanged until the Second Vatican Council, in 1963, introduced a small change, distinguished the Lenten spirit of the Advent, emphasizing Advent as a season of hope for the coming of Christ now as the promise of the Second Coming.
Maps Advent
Tradition
The theme of teaching and teaching during the Advent is often a preparation for the Second Coming, while also commemorating Christ's First Coming on Christmas Day. The first clear reference in the Western Church for Advent takes place in the Gelasian Sacrament, which provides Advent Collects, Epistles, and Gospels for the five Sundays before Christmas and for Wednesday and Friday as appropriate. While Sunday reading relates to the first coming of Jesus Christ as the savior and his second coming as judge, tradition varies in the relative sense of regret and hope during the weeks of the Resurrection.
Color liturgis
From about the 13th century, the usual liturgical colors in Western Christianity for Advent are purple; Pope Innocent III declared black to be the right color for Advent, although Durandus of Saint-PourÃÆ'§ain claimed purple had more preference than black. Purple or purple is often used for decoration around the church, the clothing of the clergy, and often the tabernacle. In some Christian denominations, blue, the color representing hope, is an alternative liturgical color for Advent, a habit that is traced to the use of the Swedish Church (Lutheran) and the medieval Sarum Rite in England. In addition, blue color is also used in the Mozarabic Rite (Catholic and Anglican), dating from the 8th century. This color is often referred to as "Sarum blue".
The Lutheran Book of Worship lists blue as the preferred color for Advent while the Methodist Book of Worship and Presbyterian Book of Common Worship identify the appropriate purple or blue for Advent. There is an increasing tendency in Protestant churches to replace the purple color with blue during the Advent because this is a hopeful season of expectation that anticipates both Bethlehem and the perfection of history in the second coming of Jesus Christ.
Proponents of this new liturgical trend argue that purple is traditionally associated with sincerity and distress, which corresponds to the repentant character of Lent. The Roman Catholic Church maintains a traditional violet. Blue is generally not used in Latin Catholicism, and where it applies regionally, it has nothing to do with Advent specifically, but with the veneration of the Blessed Virgin. However, on several occasions strongly associated with Advent, such as Rorate Mass (but not on Sundays), white is used.
On the third Sunday of Advent, Sunday Gaudete, roses can be used instead, a rose reference used on Laetare Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Lent. The rose-colored candle in Western Christianity is referenced as a sign of joy ( Gaudete ) burning on the 3rd Sunday of Advent.
During Nativity Birth, red is used by Eastern Christianity, although gold is an alternative color.
Music
Many churches also hold special music events, such as Nine Lessons and Songs and Oratorio Messiah Handel singing. Also, Advent Prose, an antiphonal plainsong, can be sung. The "Late Advent Weekdays", 17-24 December , marks the singing of the Great Advent 'O antiphons'. This is a daily antifon for the Magnificat in Vespers, or Night Prayer (in Roman Catholicism and Lutheran churches) and Evensong in Anglican churches, and marks the coming birth of the Messiah. They form the basis for each verse of the popular Adventist hymn, "O come, O come, Emmanuel". The German songs for Advent include the 15th century "Ice kommt ein schiff, geladen" and "O Heiland, reiÃÆ'Ÿ die Himmel auf", published in 1622. Johann Sebastian Bach composed several cantata for Advent in Weimar, from > Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland , BWV 61, for Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben , BWV 147a, but only one in Leipzig where he worked for a long time, because there is a silent Advent time allowing cantata music only on the first day of four Sundays.
During Advent, Gloria of the Mass is eliminated, so the return of the chanting of the angels on Christmas Day has a novel effect. Mass compositions specially written for Lent, such as Missa Tempral Quadragesimae by Michael Haydn, in D minor for choir and organ, do not have Gloria and are suitable for use in Advent.
Fasting
Bishop Perpetuus of Tours, who died in 490, ordered the fast three days a week from the day after St. Martin's Day ( November 11 ). In the 6th century, local councils ordered fasting on all days except Saturdays and Sundays from St. Martin's Day to Epiphany (baptismal), 56-day period, but forty days of fasting, such as fasting. It is therefore called Quadragesima Sancti Martini (Saint Martin's Lent). This period of fasting is shortened and is called "Advent" by the Church.
In the Anglican and Lutheran churches the rules of fasting are then relaxed. The Roman Catholic Church then abolished the fasting rule (on an unknown date no later than 1917), then, but made Advent as a regretful season. In addition to fasting, dancing and similar celebrations are prohibited in these traditions. On Sunday Rose, fasting relaxation is permitted. Eastern Orthodox Churches and Oriental Orthodoxes still hold the tradition of fasting for 40 days before Christmas.
Local ritual
In England, especially in the north, there is a habit (now extinct) for poor women to carry around "Adventist images", two dolls that are shown to represent Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary. Half coin coins are expected from everyone on display and bad luck is considered to threaten households not visited by dolls before Christmas Eve at the latest.
In Normandy, farmers employ children under the age of twelve to run through fields and gardens armed with torches, burning bundles of hay, and thus be believed to drive such pests that are likely to damage crops.
In Italy, among other Adventist festivals is to enter Rome in the last days of the Advent of the Calabrian
Recently, the most common adherence of Adventists outside of church circles is the storage of advent calendars or wax arrivals, with one door opened on the calendar, or one part of the burned candle, every day in December before Christmas Eve. In many countries, the first day of Advent often marks the beginning of the Christmas season, with many people choosing to set up Christmas trees and Christmas decorations on or immediately before Advent Sunday.
Since 2011, an Adventist labyrinth of 2500 tealights has been set up for the third Saturday of Advent in Frankfurt-Bornheim.
Advent wreath
The Adventist concept dates from the German Lutheran in the 16th century. However, it was not until three centuries later that a modern Adventist garland was formed. The modern Adventist wreath, with its candles representing the Sunday of Advent, dates from the 1839 initiative by Johann Hinrich Wichern, a Protestant minister in Germany and a pioneer in urban mission work among the poor. Given the impatience of the children he taught as they waited for Christmas, he made a wooden ring, with nineteen small reds and four large white candles. Every morning a small candle is lit, and every Sunday a big candle. Custom only retains large candles.
The wreath crown is traditionally made of cypress branches tied with red ribbon and decorated with pine, holly, laurel, and sometimes mistletoe. It is also an ancient symbol signifying several things; first of all, the crown symbolizes victory, besides the round shape that evokes the sun and returns every year. The number four represents, in addition to the four weeks of Advent, four seasons and four major virtues, and the color of green is a sign of life and hope. The pine tree is a symbol of strength and laurel a symbol of victory over sin and suffering. The last two, with holly, do not lose their leaves, and therefore represent God's immortality. The candlelight is a representation of the approaching Christmas light and bring hope and peace, and the symbol of the struggle against darkness. For Christians, this crown is also a symbol of Christ the King, who holly summons the crown of thorns that rests upon the head of Christ.
Keeping an Advent's wreath is a common practice at home or church. The Advent wreath is traditionally placed on a table with four candles or, without candles, at the front door of the house as a welcome sign.
The Advent wreath is adorned with candles, usually three violets or purple and one pink, pink candle that is lit on the Third Sunday of Advent, called Gaudete Sunday after the opening, Gaudete, meaning "Rejoice" , from the entrance of the antiphon at Mass. Some add a fifth (white) candle, known as the Christ Candle, in the middle of a bouquet of flowers, to be lit on Christmas Eve or Day.
The candles added to the crown of essay represent, in one interpretation, the major stages of salvation prior to the coming of the Messiah; the first is a symbol of forgiveness given to Adam and Eve, the second being the symbol of the faith of Abraham and the ancestors who believed in the gift of the Promised Land, the third being the symbol of the joy of David whose lineage did not cease and also testify of his covenant with God, and the wax the fourth and the last is the symbol of the teaching of the prophets announcing the government of justice and peace. Or they represent the four stages of human history; Creation, Incarnation, Penance, and Last Judgment.
In Orthodox churches there is sometimes a wreath with six candles, in line with the six-week duration of Nativity.
In Sweden, white candles, party symbols and purity, are used in celebrating Saint Lucy's Day, 13 December, always in Advent.
Four Weeks
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In the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, the reading of the Mass on Sunday Advent has different themes:
- On Sunday First they await the Second Coming of Christ.
- On the second Sunday, the Gospel recitation recalls the preaching of John the Baptist, who came to "prepare the way of the Lord"; other readings have a related theme.
- On the Third Sunday, the Gospel readings again about John the Baptist, another reading of the joy associated with the coming of the Savior.
- On the Fourth Sunday, the Gospel reading is about events involving Mary and Joseph leading directly to the birth of Jesus, while other passages are related to this.
In another tradition:
- The first Sunday reading of Advent is related to the patriarch of the Old Testament who is the ancestor of Christ, so some people call the first Adventist candle a hope.
- The second Sunday reading concerns the birth of Christ in the manger and other prophecies, so that the candle can be called Bethlehem, the way, or the prophets.
- The third Sunday, Sunday of Gaudete after the first word of introit (Philippians 4: 4), is celebrated in a pink robe similar to Laetare on Sunday in the middle of Lent. The readings relate to John the Baptist, and the rose candles can be called joy or the shepherds. In Episcopal Church USA, the gathering of "Bangkit" (the first words of the collection) can be read during this week, although before the 1979 revision of the General Prayer Book, it was sometimes read on the first Sunday of Advent. Even earlier, 'Stir-up Sunday' was once jinnially associated with the stirring of the conquest of Christmas, beginning before Advent. The phrase "evoked" occurred at the beginning of the gathering for the last Sunday before Advent in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.
- The fourth Sunday reading relates to the birth of Christ, so the candle may be known as the Angel candle. The Magnificat or Song of Mary may be displayed.
- The place of an Advent wreath includes the fifth candle, the candle is known as the candle of Christ and is lit during the Christmas Eve service.
Other variations of the theme that are celebrated on each of the four Sundays include:
- Candle of the Prophets, symbolizes hope; The candle of Bethlehem, symbolizes faith; The Shepherds Candle, symbolizes joy; Angel's Candle, represents peace
- Hope-Peace-Joy-Love
- Faithulness-Hope-Joy-Love
- Prophets-Magi-Magi-Magi
- Faith-Prepare-Joy-Love
See also
- Dormitory Fasting
- Fasting and taboo in the Roman Catholic Church
- Great Lent
- Falsification of the flesh in Christianity
- Nativity Fast
- Trial days
Note
External links
- Daily Advent Devotional (LHM)
- Advent (Christian Resource Institute) season
- The Advent Sermon Series of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist, the monastic community of the Episcopal Church
- Catholic Encyclopedia: Advent
- American Catholic: Advent to Epiphany Prayers, calendars, and activities
- Liturgical Resources for Advent
- Adventist FAQ on the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod website
- Advent Online Notice Sites
- Online Resources for the Advent's Season in this Week's Text
Further reading
- Book of Common Prayer , 1979 according to the use of The Episcopal Church
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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