Advent

Advent (Lat. adventus, 'the coming'), a season of preparation for the festival of Christmas, as Lent for that of Easter. In the Greek Church, the Advent period comprises forty days; and similarly, in the earliest authentic notice of Advent, a canon of the Council of Mâcon (581 A.D.), fasting three times a week is enjoined from the feast of St Martin (11th November) to the Nativity. In England, this forty days' fast was observed even after Bede's death (735), though Gregory the Great (590-604) had restricted the season to the four Sundays of Advent, now observed in the Roman communion and the Church of England. It was common from an early period to speak of the coming of Christ as fourfold: his 'first coming in the flesh;' his coming at the hour of death to receive his faithful followers; his coming at the fall of Jerusalem; and at the day of judgment. The Gospels for the four Sundays were chosen to illustrate this fourfold view of Advent. The Advent season is intended to accord in spirit with the object celebrated. As Christians were called upon to prepare for the second personal coming of Christ, so they are exhorted, during this season, to look for a spiritual advent of Christ. The time of the year when the shortening days are hastening toward the solstice—which almost coincides with the festival of the Nativity—is thought to harmonise with the strain of sentiment proper during Advent. In opposition, possibly, to heathen festivals observed by ancient Romans and Germans, which took place at the same season, the Catholic Church ordained that the four weeks of Advent should be kept as a time of penitence; according to the words of Christ: 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.' During these weeks, therefore, public amusements, marriage festivities, and dancing were prohibited; fasts were enjoined, and sombre vestments were used in religious ceremonies. It was perhaps a natural thought to begin the ecclesiastical year with the days of preparation for the coming of Christ. This practice was introduced into the Western churches in the 6th century.