Advent Is Here Again … Forget That Baby!

ANOTHER YEAR … AND WE LEAVE OUT THE BABY … AGAIN

************************************** This article is a brief intro to ‘Advent’ … traditional and modern, plus an easy index to my advent series of informative & fun reads. (AT END) **************************************

At December-time the city streets are bustling with Christmas shoppers … all well-intentioned I guess … Its the Advent period … but in this modern world there seems to be little time for ‘that baby’.

That baby is of course, the baby Jesus … adored and honored by Christians as The Saviour of The World, and when Christmas Day arrives, Christians celebrate The Birthday of Jesus.

Of course, in what we sometimes call ‘our more-enlightened time’, lots of folk think quite differently. There are many individuals (and organized groups) that object to such things as ‘religion’ … nowadays declaring themselves as atheists, or agnostics. And of course, there are several other faiths with different traditions too.

We live in a mixed world, with mixed views.

But here’s The Amazing thing:

With that realism and recognition of how things really are nowadays, it still remains a fact that this period of time … the December build-up to the date of Jesus’ birthday (December 25th), is still called Advent, and as if to prove it … even from an atheistic-leaning world … we see all around us in the shops and stores, items for sale that are labelled ‘ADVENT CALENDARS’.

Here’s an Advent Calendar I found this year (and there were many many more too … all with similar commercial overtones!!):

Have the advent calendars of this modern era forgotten the baby and the true meaning of Advent? At first glance at least, it looks like that way.

The True meaning of Advent … (I thought I’d better explain!):

Advent is a season observed in most Christian denominations as a time of expectant waiting and preparation for The Birth of Christ at Christmas as depicted in The Bible’s record of The Nativity in Bethlehem.

The name ‘Advent’ is from the Latin: ‘adventus’ (= “coming or arrival”).

Practices associated with Advent include Advent calendars (that really do build up to the nativity of Jesus); the lighting of an Advent wreath; praying an Advent daily devotional; erecting a Christmas tree; lighting a Christingle, as well as other ways of preparing for Christmas, such as setting up Christmas decorations, a custom that is still ‘the thing to do’, even in non-religious settings. Bet YOU participate in some of these … maybe just the tree & decorations?

(For more information and details on Advent, see Wikipedia.)

The Advent of Today’s Era … with a touch of religion thrown in:

Last year I saw “O COME LET US ADORE HAM” on a food label when shopping in November, and was immediately reminded of a hymn sung in Christian churches at Christmas titled: “O COME LET US ADORE HIM”. It looked a bit like this:

An so to My Advent Series of informative and fun reads:

It was that ‘HAM’ food label that gave me the inspiration to write the following ‘Series of easy-read articles around the theme of Advent’. If you have time, do take a leisurely stroll through this Advent Series. It’ll be worth the read … I guarantee.

You can: either 1: Have a real quick read of: O Come Let Us Adore Ham , (a mini-story re the above) right now, and follow the prompts to the whole Advent Series,

or 2: To save time, here below are all the title links to each article in the series. (Copy and Save the list for later reading):

Intro: O Come Let Us Adore Ham, then:

1: ‘The Prince of Peace is coming’

2: ‘What do you want for Christmas?’

3: ‘Is He Here Yet?’

4: ‘The 25th Day: The Nativity’

Thank you for spending time with me and my Advent-time reads … Fred

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‘Advent Is Here Again … Forget That Baby’ by Fred: writer on Medium ******** © Fred Ogden 2023 ********

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