Is Christmas a Celebration of Advent

The Season of Advent is the Season of preparation for the Christmas Season. Advent starts on the Sunday closest to St Andrew's Day and lasts for Four Sundays leading up to Christmas. The Season of Advent ends on the Christmas Eve Eve because Christmas finally starts on Christmas Eve Day.

Advent comes from the Latin word meaning Coming or arrival. This could be connected with the Parousia of Christ. The Season of Advent is used to prepare us not only for the Birth of a Child some 2000 years ago but also for the Coming of Christ on Resurrection Day. Advent therefore has a strong connection with Lent. These are both preparation season. They both also prepare us for a Resurrection from the Dead. Lent prepares us for the Death and Resurrection of our LORD Jesus Christ. But Advent prepares us for our own Resurrection.

Advent often times gets consumed by the Christmas Celebration. Advent becomes not a time of Celebration but a way to continue the season. It can be very interesting to look at the 7 Sundays of Easter and the 7 Sundays of Christmas. You have 4 Sundays of Advent and a possible 2 Sundays after Christmas which you can add either Christ the King Sunday or the Baptism of our LORD which then would become the 7th Sunday.

"Modern observance of Advent tends to be overshadowed by the all but universal anticipation of Christmas, necessary in Scholastic institutions, unfortunate if perhaps inevitable elsewhere. Likewise it can be questioned whether the Joint Liturgical Group Calendar, with its nine-Sunday approach to Christmas, can be combined with the traditional Western four-Sunday Advent, as the Alternative Service Book of the Church of England has done." From The New Westminster Dictionary of Liturgy and Worship edited by JG Davies.

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