Is it Christmas yet? Rediscovering the roots of our Advent traditions

By John Hamer, Canada East Mission Centre Historian

We have entered the season of Advent, whose name comes from the Latin word adventus, meaning “coming” or “arrival” — denoting the arrival of God among us, the incarnation of Christ that we celebrate on Christmas Day. This is the period of the calendar in the northern hemisphere when the days are shortest and the nights are longest. This was a time of special hardship and anxiety for pre-modern people, who lacked the artificial lighting and central heating that most of us now take for granted. Early Medieval Christians responded by making extraordinary spiritual preparations. By the 6th century CE in the Latin West, it was common to set the month leading to Christmas apart as a time of penitence and fasting.

The tradition of marking the four Sundays of Advent by lighting the candles of an Advent wreath is much more recent. Johann Hinrich Wichern was a Lutheran pastor and theologian living in Hamburg, Germany, in the 1830s. He founded a social service institution called the Rauhes Haus to shelter and educate neglected children, the mentally handicapped, and to care for the elderly. During Advent, the children would ask daily if Christmas had arrived — “Is it Christmas yet?” “Is it Christmas yet?” “Is it Christmas yet?” — so Johann repurposed an old cartwheel by decorating it with candles: 24 small red candles and 4 large white candles. Each weekday or Saturday, one of the red candles was lit, and each Sunday of Advent, a white candle was lit, allowing the children to count down visually. In this way, the Advent wreath and candles had the same initial purpose as Advent calendars — which also date from 19th-century Germany and count down the days until Christmas. Advent calendars today usually take the form of a box containing 25 doors, which are opened each day to reveal a tiny present or candy.

The practice of the Advent wreath spread, and over time, the number, form, and symbolism of the candles have evolved. The wreath itself symbolizes that God’s love is infinite, represented by the evergreen leaves set in a circle. Most wreaths today consist of four candles, which are understood to represent hope, peace, joy, and love. Often, three of the four are violet (a traditional liturgical colour of Advent), along with a single pink candle. In this tradition, the pink candle represents “joy,” marking a break in the penitential cycle on Advent’s third Sunday. (In other liturgical traditions, all four principal candles are either blue, gold, or red.) Sometimes a fifth candle, usually white, is placed in the centre of the wreath. This candle, which is lit last, symbolizes Christ made manifest among us.

Hope, peace, love, and joy are concepts central to the Christian understanding of God’s goals for creation. In our own denomination, however, they have taken on additional meaning through our mission statement: “We proclaim Jesus Christ and promote communities of joy, hope, love, and peace.” What are some of the traditions that you, your family, or your congregation observe during this sacred season, where we prepare ourselves to experience the sacred story of the incarnation of God’s Word at Christmas?