Advent

Advent is a season of the liturgical year observed in most Christian denominations as a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of Christ’s Nativity at Christmas and the return of Christ at the Second Coming. Advent is the beginning of the liturgical year in Western Christianity and is part of the more comprehensive Christmas and holiday season.

The term “Advent” is also used in Eastern Christianity (including Eastern Orthodoxy, Eastern Lutheranism, and Eastern Catholicism) for the 40-day Nativity Fast, which has practices different from those in the West.

The name was adopted from the Latin adventus, “coming; arrival,” translating Greek parousia. This term is used for the Second Coming of Christ in the New Testament. Thus, the season of Advent in the Christian calendar anticipates the “coming of Christ” from three different perspectives:

• The physical Nativity in Bethlehem
• The reception of Christ in the heart of the believer
• The eschatological Second Coming

Practices associated with Advent include keeping an Advent calendar, lighting an Advent wreath, praying an Advent daily devotional, erecting a Christmas tree or a Chrismon tree, lighting a Christingle, and other ways of preparing for Christmas, such as setting up Christmas decorations. This custom is sometimes done liturgically through a hanging of the greens ceremony. The equivalent of Advent in Eastern Christianity is called the Nativity Fast. Still, it differs in length and observances and does not begin the liturgical church year as it does in the West. The Eastern Nativity Fast does not use the equivalent parousia in its preparatory services.