Advent

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starlight

Protestant
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Happy Advent to everyone now that the season has officially begun. We look forward to Christ's birth with happiness and exultation but also sorrow. He was born to die for us. So, we celebrate Jesus' birth already knowing what will happen to Him: the final sacrifice, the sacrifice to end all sacrifices. It's both a season of celebration and somberness.

How do you celebrate the Advent season?
 
starlight said:
Happy Advent to everyone now that the season has officially begun. We look forward to Christ's birth with happiness and exultation but also sorrow. He was born to die for us. So, we celebrate Jesus' birth already knowing what will happen to Him: the final sacrifice, the sacrifice to end all sacrifices. It's both a season of celebration and somberness.

How do you celebrate the Advent season?
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For us Orthodox who are on the new calendar we start the nativity fast on 15th October which lasts for 40 days, ends on 25th December, thats basically how we "celebrate" this time, we still have the usual Christmas trees, presents etc, my kids were given an advent calendar and every day they eat a small chocolate until its Christmas day, its a count down. How about you guys?
 
GoodShepherd said:
For us Orthodox who are on the new calendar we start the nativity fast on 15th October which lasts for 40 days, ends on 25th December, thats basically how we "celebrate" this time, we still have the usual Christmas trees, presents etc, my kids were given an advent calendar and every day they eat a small chocolate until its Christmas day, its a count down. How about you guys?
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For us Lutheran's, we have the Advent wreath that has four candles which is the four Sundays before Christmas day. Each candle represents something different: peace, hope, joy, and love. We have an advent soup-supper (which is as close to a fast as you'll get for Lutherans) for the evening Wednesday Advent services.

At home, we have an Advent calendar which we have always done, a German tradition from my father's side. Christmas tree, of course, which is actually a great and easy way of passing down memories and traditions. In my family, we all put up the ornaments together, some of the ornaments are my grandmother's (God rest her soul) and some are ones that my brother made when he was well, and etc. Each ornament has a very special memory to it and when we hang them on the tree we remember them fondly and recite our fond stories about them.
 
I’m on the old calendar so Nativity Fast goes until January 7th. We have Christmas trees and Advent wreaths too, but the wreaths have 6 candles, since Orthodox Advent includes 6 Sundays. I do “new calendar Christmas” with my family on the 25th, since they’re not Orthodox, and then “old calendar Nativity” with the church on January 7th. The first is very secular while the the second is very religious and spiritual.
 
We are also on the old calendar, which places us out of step with modern culture, but it actually helps me to keep focused on the Nativity of Christ rather than Santa, etc. On the first day of Advent our parishioners can sign up to read a section of Psalms daily, called a kathisma,. Since each person begins with a different section, the entire book is read each day by the group, and we end up going through the whole book twice. At the same time we are to pray daily for the others on the reading list. Tomorrow we have a church service in honor of St. Nicholas, the real St. Nicholas, and some exchange gifts, giving treats to children. So we fully celebrate on the day of Christmas/Nativity (Jan. 7) and the 12 Days of Christmas following,
 
IconWriter said:
We are also on the old calendar, which places us out of step with modern culture, but it actually helps me to keep focused on the Nativity of Christ rather than Santa, etc. On the first day of Advent our parishioners can sign up to read a section of Psalms daily, called a kathisma,. Since each person begins with a different section, the entire book is read each day by the group, and we end up going through the whole book twice. At the same time we are to pray daily for the others on the reading list. Tomorrow we have a church service in honor of St. Nicholas, the real St. Nicholas, and some exchange gifts, giving treats to children. So we fully celebrate on the day of Christmas/Nativity (Jan. 7) and the 12 Days of Christmas following,
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Interesting that you read the Kathismata for Advent. My parish reads them throughout the Lenten Fast.
 
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