Celebrating Advent

Growing up in the Catholic Church and spending my formative education in an Anglican school, it is almost in my blood to celebrate advent. In many ways, it even seems like catholics and anglicans pay more heed to Advent than Christmas. The whole advent season lasts for about a month, while christmas for 2 days and then Epiphany starts. I still remember for the whole month before Christmas, my old catholic home church would be draped in luscious purple and gold (the colors of the season), and the nativity would be grandly set up at the back of the church for pilgrimage and meditation. At my school, we would be practicing christmas carols and madrigals for the whole month, preparing for the school's advent service where all the students march from the school hall to the nearby St. John's Cathedral. The air of Christmas was so thick back in those days that it was impossible for one to avoid the season but simply had to breathe it all in. In my youth, when I was not particularly religious, I still remember how these festivities had drawn me to be deeply drunken in the magnificence and beauty of the story of incarnation. Even though I didn't believe then, seeing such visual representation of the grandiosity of heaven decscending into humble humanity fired up flickers of faith deep in my rebellious and youthful soul. I still savor these colorful imageries in my memory every advent.

So that's why after years of attending protestant denominations (not meaning that anglicans are not protestants but that after I started attending protestant church instead of the catholic church), I'm still the stickler in my family to practice advent, making sure we follow the advent reading schedule each year according to the Book of Common Prayer(if you are wondering this year the readings are from Advent Year 2), setting up our advent candles at the same time we trim our christmas tree, and attending the anglican traditional 9 Lessons and Carols service. (Though last year we succumbed to toddler fatigue and regretfully, but wisely, skipped the lengthy celebration which would have been a disaster with a 2-year-old.) Over the years, Advent has grown more meaningful to me, not only because now I believe with all my heart of all that the season represents, but also it reminds me of all those years when I was still a sinner, God came down from heaven, so gently pleading room to dwell in my heart again and again because He loves me so passionately and faithfully.