Day 17: Advent

Being away from home for the holiday season sucks—not that my current home, the too-expensive house in Pennsylvania that’s been up for sale for close to a year now, is all that inviting anymore.

But still—it’s hard to get into the Christmas spirit when you’re a girl from the Northeast who’s used to cold weather and you suddenly find yourself in balmy Texas, with no real hope for snow and not even any Christmas decorations to make it seem like home.

So, to try to ward off the holiday blues, I thought I would talk today about Advent.

For Christians, Advent is the period that leads up to Christmas, the birth of Jesus, which Catholics and Protestants celebrate on December 25. (Eastern Orthodox Christians usually celebrate the birth of Jesus when they celebrate the Epiphany—the time when the Wise Men visited the infant Jesus—on January 6.)

Advent begins on November 30 (although most department stores seem to think it should begin before Halloween), and it lasts until Christmas Day—the Feast of the Nativity. Although most modern Christians, especially in the United States, seem to “celebrate” Advent by shopping frantically for gifts and getting plastered at holiday parties, Advent is actually supposed to be a period of fasting and repenting for any sins committed throughout the year.

Orthodox Christians take the vague idea of “fasting” to a higher level: They’re supposed to refrain from eating either meat or dairy products for the entire 40-day period from the start of Advent until the Epiphany. Oops. I guess I’m not being Orthodox this month, since I already had a hot dog for lunch.

I have to say that I never heard about the fasting portion of Advent, even throughout all my years in CCD. Of course, one of my CCD teachers was a crusty, cantankerous old nun who told our third-grade class (and this is a direct quote): “Fuck and shit like that ain’t cursing. Only taking the name of the Lord in vain counts.” So maybe my religious education wasn’t quite as thorough as one might have hoped.

Anyway, Advent isn’t just about regretting sins and fasting. It’s also a period of joyful anticipation—getting excited and happy about the arrival of Jesus, whose miraculous birth to the Virgin Mary represents the fulfillment of prophecies and the promise of salvation for believers. Advent is also, at least since medieval times, a period to prepare for Jesus’s Second Coming, as well as a time to take notice of Jesus’s presence in our everyday lives.

That’s all well and good, but like I’ve said before, I’m a visual person and I like stuff. To me, Advent is a time for putting up Christmas decorations and “decking the halls” and getting ready for the magic of Christmas—which I still find myself anticipating every year, just as much as I did when I was a child.

Not having a wreath on my door or a Nativity set or even a Christmas tree is making this year’s Advent a bit of a downer. I should probably be focusing on fasting and repentance, rather than whining about how “un-Christmas-y” it is down here in Texas. But what can you do? I may be able to try out a new religion every month, but I guess changing my old habits will be a little harder.