This book is offered as a way to enrich and focus your household observance of Advent. It begins with a historical overview of how the season developed that is followed by a biblical reckoning of Advent themes and persons. The middle section contains the details of Advent: the symbols, persons, traditions and events you may want to include on your calendar. Each symbol has an accompanying scripture verse, description and suggestion. Finally, the last section provides three models for making a personalized calendar to mark the days of Advent. Consider making the junk-mail version once or twice before attempting the felt or quilted version. The final chapter contains the actual symbols for copying, coloring and transferring onto your calendar. (Note: The first year you make one of the cloth versions, you may want to specify coloring the symbol for the day’s activity. At Advent’s close, the symbols will be ready to transfer.)
The book and resultant calendar can be used to facilitate daily prayer and ritual, as well as to contribute to Christian education about the symbols, traditions, personalities and beliefs central to the season of Advent. The origins and meaning of Advent and some Christmas customs are presented, many of which are already popular practices. Yet many of the living traditions inherent to Advent are obscure in meaning, and other practices may be unfamiliar altogether. Learning the meaning of what we do strengthens our experience of Advent and ultimately our relationships with God and one another.
Advent is meant to be a time of introspection and reawakening of our true selves; therefore, setting a daily rhythm for using the calendar is well worth the effort. Just as we consult our secular calendars in preparation for the coming day, opening the Advent calendar and reflecting on a symbol’s meaning provides a foundation to live by daily. The daily practice will equip you in your service to Christ. Take the experience signified by the calendar to the lighting of the candle(s) on the Advent wreath. (An Advent wreath devotional is provided in chapter 4.) Prayers and/or conversation may reflect on how the symbolization of the day impacts its event and your faith. Sometimes the impact may be too subtle to notice. Practice awareness of its influence. The more aware you become, the more manifest the coming of Christ will be in your life.
The goal is to make consistent use of the calendar and the Advent wreath. Days will occur when you are lucky to get the calendar opened, much less enter into any type of ritual! Such is the way of contemporary life. Do not judge yourself when you neglect the calendar or wreath. Simply be aware of your omission and allow this awareness to encourage the following day’s observance. A prayerful, disciplined observance of Advent prepares us for an abundant celebration of Christ’s arrival. Blessed are we who live in homes rich with focused rituals that awaken, condition, and strengthen us to receive Christ and enjoy the fruits of the coming!
How to Choose the Symbols for Your Calendar
The liturgical Advent calendar is designed to enhance our expectation of Jesus with spiritual and material preparation by accommodating and simplifying the variety of happenings during Advent. It pulls together the household life: religious and secular, work and play, individual, familial and social. The dates and symbols can be adjusted with ease to accommodate the flux of days within the season of Advent and the fluctuation of our lives from year to year. Symbolized blocks are selected to remind us of significant dates, special occasions, and routine events.
To choose what symbols to use, gather your household calendars: daily planners, general calendars, school calendars, church calendars, and so on. On a sheet of paper, list the dates of the current Advent season. First note the dates for the four Sundays; they take precedence. Then map out the remaining dates you want to symbolize: special church activities, for example, Advent lessons and carols or Las Posadas; family events, such as a birthday or anniversary; the day to get the tree; and the day to bake cookies. Thumb through the pages of chapters 4, 5 and 6 for ideas. Once you have assigned dates to the occasions important to Advent and your household, you should have a list that looks something like this:
“Choose this day whom you will serve.”
—Joshua 24:15
| Date | Observance |
| November 30 | First Sunday of Advent and St. Andrew’s Day* |
| December 1 | |
| 2 | |
| 3 | Birthday |
| 4 | |
| 5 | |
| 6 | Nicholas’ Day |
| 7 | Second Sunday of Advent |
| 8 | Mary’s Day |
| 9 | Pet birthday |
| 10 | |
| 11 | Make cookie dough |
| 12 | Bake and decorate cookies |
| 13 | Mail gifts |
| 14 | Third Sunday of Advent |
| 15 | Fetch Christmas tree |
| 16 | |
| 17 | Fire department Christmas party |
| 18 | |
| 19 | |
| 20 | Decorate tree and Hanukkah |
| 21 | Fourth Sunday of Advent and Las |
| 22 | |
| 23 | |
| 24 | Christmas Eve |
With an eye to the unassigned dates on your list, read chapters 3, 4, 5 and 6. Select persons to remember or activities to do, filling in the open dates until no free dates remain. As you do so, read about the symbols that apply to the dates selected above and jot a note about all of the current days of Advent, as well as their assigned symbol numbers. The symbol numbers may be found in the caption under each symbol in chapter 10, where all of the symbols in this book are listed (in their order of appearance) with a key and cross-reference.
Chapter 3 surveys the biblical foundation of the three themes of Advent (past, future and present comings of Christ) and the three key figures of Advent (Isaiah, Mary and John the Baptist). Special holy days and persons essential to Advent but lacking a fixed date are covered in Chapter 4, including the four Sundays of Advent (already noted on your