Hello
And Happy First Advent!
What is an Advent, you might ask. All the Finns know what it is because many of them celebrate Advent. Even if they don't celebrate it, they know something about it because everybody has been taught things about Advent at school.
Advent is the beginning of the Church Year for most churches in the Western tradition. It begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day, which is the Sunday nearest November 30, and ends on Christmas Eve (Dec 24). The word Advent means "coming" or "arrival" and it refers to the birth of Jesus. Advent is a spiritual season of preparation before Christmas celebrated by many Christians.
One of the ways to celebrate Advent is to light Advent candles. You are supposed to have four candles and you light one candle on the first Advent. Then on the second Advent Sunday you light the first and the second candle. And so on till the fourth Advent Sunday. The candles symbolize the passage of the four weeks of Advent. Some people have and Advent wreath that has four candles.
Here's my Advent candles for the Christmas 2011.
Another way to take part in Advent is to have an Advent calendar. Usually only kids have Advent calendars. The idea of it is to have a calendar that has 24 windows and you open one window per day in December. That way you count down to Christmas. The traditional Advent calendars show a Christmas themed picture when you open the window. The modern calendars have little chocolates and toys for kids. It is also popular to make your own calendars. My mom used to make an Advent calendar to me and my brother for many years. My mom's calendars were special. Some days the window had a little map that lead to a treasure hunt around the house. Then we got stickers and candy. I remember getting a little doll too. She really went all out with her calendars!
I will buy an Advent calendar for me and Scott in couple days. It is fun even for grown ups (*giggle*). I will also post pictures of it for everybody to see how it looks like. Advent calendars are very popular in Finland and every kid has one or more every Christmas. I don't think they are as common in the USA.
That's it for today. I will go enjoy my Advent candles and get some knitting done. I'm making few knitted xmas presents. But I can't show what or who quite yet. I love xmas time secrets!
And Happy First Advent!
What is an Advent, you might ask. All the Finns know what it is because many of them celebrate Advent. Even if they don't celebrate it, they know something about it because everybody has been taught things about Advent at school.
Advent is the beginning of the Church Year for most churches in the Western tradition. It begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day, which is the Sunday nearest November 30, and ends on Christmas Eve (Dec 24). The word Advent means "coming" or "arrival" and it refers to the birth of Jesus. Advent is a spiritual season of preparation before Christmas celebrated by many Christians.
One of the ways to celebrate Advent is to light Advent candles. You are supposed to have four candles and you light one candle on the first Advent. Then on the second Advent Sunday you light the first and the second candle. And so on till the fourth Advent Sunday. The candles symbolize the passage of the four weeks of Advent. Some people have and Advent wreath that has four candles.
Here's my Advent candles for the Christmas 2011.
Another way to take part in Advent is to have an Advent calendar. Usually only kids have Advent calendars. The idea of it is to have a calendar that has 24 windows and you open one window per day in December. That way you count down to Christmas. The traditional Advent calendars show a Christmas themed picture when you open the window. The modern calendars have little chocolates and toys for kids. It is also popular to make your own calendars. My mom used to make an Advent calendar to me and my brother for many years. My mom's calendars were special. Some days the window had a little map that lead to a treasure hunt around the house. Then we got stickers and candy. I remember getting a little doll too. She really went all out with her calendars!
I will buy an Advent calendar for me and Scott in couple days. It is fun even for grown ups (*giggle*). I will also post pictures of it for everybody to see how it looks like. Advent calendars are very popular in Finland and every kid has one or more every Christmas. I don't think they are as common in the USA.
That's it for today. I will go enjoy my Advent candles and get some knitting done. I'm making few knitted xmas presents. But I can't show what or who quite yet. I love xmas time secrets!
i always had an advent calender growing up :)
ReplyDeletewe also used to make paper advent chains 25 chains long counting down until Christmas we would break off one of the chains...
your candles are lovely! you have inspired me & reminded me of the date :)... i can't believe it's already this time of year!
You are more European than you might even realize. The kids I took care of in the US didn't know about advent calendars at all.
ReplyDeleteThat advent chain sound fun! We never had that.
Have a lovely xmas time!!