advent

ad·vent [ad-vent] –noun
1. a coming into place, view, or being; arrival: the advent of the holiday season.
2. the coming of Christ into the world.
3. the period beginning four Sundays before Christmas, observed in commemoration of the coming of Christ into the world.

i'm not a christian, but like many americans, i do observe some christian traditions; in this case, i do try to make the holidays "special." i do this not as much to remember the birth of the christ (but i do that, too), as to observe a season in which we try a little harder to be 'better.'

anyway, too many times we've felt like christmas day just snuck up on us before we were ready, before we had a chance to cultivate the desired "christmas spirit." thus, a few years ago we took a page from the catholics' book and started celebrating advent. for those who aren't familiar with it, advent is the four-week period that leads up to christmas.

so on the first day of advent we place an 'advent wreath' (ours this year is shown above) on the dining room table, light one of the four candles (representing the four sundays until christmas), and have a symbolic dinner of lentil soup, bread, hummus, olives and water. each sunday at dinner we light another candle, until the last week, when all four are burning and we are ostensibly ready for the happy day.

by the same token, we celebrate the season until what is known as the feast of the epiphany, on January 6, the last of the fabled "twelve days of christmas," and the day that the star finally led legendary wise men to a certain stable in bethlehem.

here's wishing our family, friends old and new, stangers and others the blessing of the season, today and every day.