Advent: Forgotten Season, Season of Quiet

    This article is one of a series commissioned by the Worship Committee to help us grow in our knowledge of the ways in which we worship.  It was originally published in the December, 1997, issue of the St. Luke's Newsletter.

    As any Episcopalian knows, Advent is the season of preparation for Christmas.  Those who cut their teeth, so to speak, on the 1928 Prayer Book could tell you that Advent is supposed to be a "little Lent."  Probe for details, though, and we're all apt to be a little vague because Advent, more than any other liturgical season, reflects the patchwork of customs and usages that was pre-Medieval Christianity.

    Long before a date for celebrating Christ's birth was agreed upon, Epiphany was established as a major festival of the church.  Its importance is indicated by the fact that it was one of the two dates on which baptism was administered.   Nowhere was the practice more common than in Gallia (modern France).  The Gallican Church instituted a season of preparation for Epiphany baptism in addition to the better-known pre-Easter preparation season called Lent.  This winter season was also marked by extra prayer, study, and various acts of penance for the sins of one's pre-Christian life.  Unlike Lent, though, this was not a liturgical season -- that is, no changes were made in the liturgy to call all the faithful to do penance.  Because the period began around Martinmas in November, it was widely known as "St. Martin's Lent."  In other localities, the season was shorter (four weeks as opposed to six) and was known as "Little Lent."

    Meanwhile, perhaps to provide some healthy competition for all those pagan winter solstice festivals, the date of December 25 was agreed upon as the time to celebrate Christ's birth.  Such an important anniversary obviously called for its own preparatory season.  Thus arose, especially in the Eastern dioceses, the practice of using dark blue altar hangings and vestments to mark the period before the Adventus, or coming of the Savior.  Dark blue suggested the dark midwinter skies in which a Christmas star was soon to shine, and helped set the mood of quiet expectation that marked the season for the Church.

    Among the liturgical reforms instituted by Gregory I in the 6th century was the standardization of Advent practices.  St. Martin's Lent was shortened to four weeks, ending with the feast of the "Christ Mass" (Christmas).  Many of the scriptures read during the Advent season were selected by Gregory.  Many of the prayers we use are his.  In recognition of the penitential nature of the season (at least for candidates for baptism), Advent's color was to be purple.  Lenten purple, though, is more dull and somber.  A real Advent purple is much closer to magenta, and the color of the third Sunday in Advent, Gaudete ("rejoice") Sunday is, in fact, rose.

    When the custom of the lucinarium [aka, the Advent wreath], a wreath ornamented with candles, was borrowed from the pagan solstice celebrations, the Advent colors were assigned to the candles (that's why there's one pink one).   But to make it quite clear that this was not a pagan wreath, a special blessing -- or disclaimer, as it were -- was performed on the first Sunday of Advent.

    As the Church today tries to reclaim some of its forgotten past, many congregations have returned to the use of deep blue hangings and vestments.  The idea is to shift the emphasis of the season from penitence (which is so foreign to the joy surrounding the Incarnation) to one of quiet waiting for God to act in history -- once, long ago, by sending Christ; in the world today through Christ's presence in His Church; and someday in the future at Christ's return.

    The winter holiday season gets longer every year.  The decorations get flashier and the marketing pitches more raucous.  Surely we need more than ever the Church's gift of a season of quiet as we await once more the coming of Emmanuel, God with us.