Advent vs. holiday season: 1st Sunday of Advent

            I love the Advent season.  I enjoy the new color purple, music we sing and prayers in the Breviary all geared at the coming of Christ as a baby.  And that’s exactly what Advent means—an arrival or coming.

            Yet I have to admit, I can’t stand the holiday season—what secular society calls this time of year.  While Advent and the holiday season overlap in time, they are quite different.  Today I’d simply like to share why.

            First, the name itself: holiday season, happy holidays, etc.  Here Christ is removed from the scene in order to avoid offending potential shoppers.  And when Christ is allowed to stay, he is given a position below Santa. 

            The holiday season runs from 4:00am on Black Friday until the presents have been opened up on December 25^th.  During this time Christmas music (which often has nothing to do with Christ or religion at all) fills the airwaves, lines fill the malls and anxiety fills the minds as people scramble to get everything done.

            The mascot for this season would be the Target lady.  Dressed in red and trained to get the best deals of the season, she personifies the holidays.  Her goal is simple: get everything done as simply and cheaply as possible.

            Advent is quite different.  In a very real way, it is a second Lent—kind of like Lent light!  It is a time to give up chocolate and to seek extra ways to pray, fast and give alms.  In this area, I appreciate that Advent is relatively short—24 days this year.  Rather than a season of noise and busyness, Advent is meant to be quiet and reflective.  This is a time of year, not to consume and purchase and buy but to refrain and give and sacrifice.  It is a time to stand in a different line--the line to Confession.  And as the days get shorter and shorter, we enter into the darkness of quiet anticipation waiting for Christ to come.

Our mascot is the Blessed Virgin Mary—she is 24 days from giving birth.  In fact, the image of any mother close to her due date is one of the best ways to think of Advent.  You Moms know your whole life—diet, sleep, functions and activities—was directed solely to the birth of your baby.  So, too, our diet, daily activities and prayer should be directed solely towards the birth of Jesus.

We have 24 days until Christmas.  Will this be just another holiday season for you or will an Advent season lived to the full?  Will December 25^th be the end, or the new beginning?