When does the Advent season begin?
Even as a child, you are fascinated by the many impressions that the Advent season brings. Finally, you have left the gray, boring November behind. Sunday of the dead is just past and from now on one may prepare oneself also completely officially for Christmas and look forward. Because next Sunday is the first Advent, so the Advent season has begun. Has it really just begun? Wasn’t it months ago when – in what felt like the late summer that was just ending – the first Christmas treats were offered in the supermarkets?
Be that as it may – the “calendrical” Advent begins only after Sunday of the dead. And even then, the Christmas spirit only gradually emerges. Not already in September, when for purely commercial reasons marzipan, Spekulatius and chocolate Nicolaus are offered for sale. At the beginning of December, the real Advent season begins, the one you enjoyed so much as a child and which is associated with fond memories that you often don’t forget for the rest of your life.
Things that characterize the Advent season
Advent translated means “arrival”. Advent is therefore the time marked by an arrival. The arrival of Jesus Christ, whose birth we celebrate every year on December 24. And because that was such an overwhelming event, the four weeks leading up to it are used to prepare for it.
(Candle-) Light
Light is an essential factor of the Advent season. Just as Jesus Christ brought light into the world through his birth, great importance is attached to the theme of lighting during Advent.
When we were children, a lighted Christmas tree in a front yard was already something special. On the way to school, when it was usually still quite dark, we used to count how many of these trees we spotted. And during Advent, more were added every day.
In the course of the last few years, a real competitive battle has arisen on the subject of lighting in residential areas. Fairy lights, arches, garlands, stars, warm white, cold white, red, green, blue, permanent, flickering, flashing – there seems to be no limit to the imagination and every year new ideas are added. And not only in residential areas. Many cities, municipalities, retailers and businesses also do their best to illuminate streets, squares, paths and buildings. Sometimes I long for the days when lighting both indoors and outdoors was accentuated in a way that brought real coziness and Christmas spirit. Not to mention artificial lights and LEDs, which have already replaced the natural light of candles in many areas.
Tension
The Advent season is always exciting. Then as now. Advent ends with Christmas, which, as we all know, is not only the festival of love, but also of gifts. Was that a tension, when the parents were for hours in the city and loaded with bags and bags emerged at some point exhausted again. Always careful to hide everything so that no one could even guess what was in the bags. Of course one had a suspicion, one had written a wish list after all. But whether the wishes would come true, you would only find out at Christmas. Until then, one had to be patient, and the longer the Advent season lasted, the more the tension increased.
Advent has its own smell
And not just one. Because the Advent season brings with it many scents that you don’t normally perceive in the same way, and which have become inextricably linked in the brain with the theme of Advent.
There is the scent of fir greenery. Fir greenery decorated in the apartment for Christmas. And especially the scent of fir greenery from the Christmas tree that is put up on Christmas Eve and fills the room with its fragrance and glow.
And what else are there scents that we associate with Advent. The smell of Christmas cookies, especially when they are baked in the family. The smell of Christmas plates, which is composed of the smell of apples, nuts, cookies, chocolate, marzipan. This is a very special aroma.
Not to mention the smell of a Christmas market. This mixture of bratwurst, mulled wine, popcorn, cotton candy and everything else that is offered there. The Advent season really demands a lot from the fine sense of smell, crowned by the scent of the Christmas roast on December 24 or the smell of an extinguished candle at the end of a beautiful Advent evening.
And then there’s the scent of a cold December day. When the cold air has its so very own smell and you think you can literally smell that it will soon snow.
Do good
Many people use the Advent season to make their fellow human beings happy. The neighbor, the work colleague or even the poor beggar who sits freezing in the pedestrian zone and somehow keeps his head above water. Gift-giving should not be limited to the immediate family. Because the greatest gift of mankind, Jesus Christ, whose birth we celebrate at Christmas, should be reason enough to share with others and make them happy.
Conviviality, fellowship and good food
This is also a typical Advent and Christmas theme. People visit each other more often, especially at Christmas, the family gets together, people meet friends, spend time together. The two days off after Christmas Eve offer the ideal opportunity for this. And most of the time, this is always combined with a really good meal. People outdo each other in what they bring to the table. Everyone wants to treat their guests to the best, and Advent is often marked by changes in clothing sizes.
What do you associate with Advent?
Do you have special memories of Advent when you were a child? Do you have a special expectation of Advent today? Are there rituals, ceremonies, or other habits that make Advent special for you? A Christmas market, church, or other location that you absolutely want to visit during Advent. Is there anything that was an essential part of Advent for you as a child, but that you miss today?
Have you ever thought about writing a book about “your” Advent? About what shaped your memories of Advent? About what is still inseparable from Advent for you today? Wouldn’t it be a very nice thing if your children and grandchildren could learn more about your Advent, especially that of your childhood, and even read about it.
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Writing a book with Meminto Stories
Try it with the help of Meminto Stories. At www.meminto.com you can find instructions on how to create your own book quickly and easily. A real book. With stories about your Advent season, properly printed and bound. You will be amazed how simple it is. You set the theme, in this case Advent. And then you get questions from Meminto at regular intervals. Little by little, a book is created from this. Imagine that you can read from this book to your children or grandchildren on a cozy winter evening during the next Advent season. And in doing so, you create another feature that will shape your children’s or grandchildren’s memories of Advent: Reading aloud from the Advent book.
