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An Advent wreath keeps the traditional meaning of Christmas alive in many modern Christian homes. Advent, a religious season that begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, commemorates the centuries of waiting for the arrival of the Savior promised to the Jews in the Old Testament.
For Christians, the season of Advent is a time of quiet meditation in preparation for the Christmas celebration in honor of the birth of Jesus. Each of the four weeks before Christmas, a particular virtue or quality of faith is the focus of meditation and a candle lighting ritual.
The oldest records of lighted winter-time wreaths date to the pre-Christian German peoples. Fire and candles provided the only light during the long cold season, and celebrations developed around circles of candles as reminders of the coming spring with its longer days.
Sometime around the ninth century AD, Christians adopted the candle-lit wreath as a symbol of the new faith. It became a traditional centerpiece for the weeks preceding Christmas Day. A thousand years ago, great halls in England used wagon wheels, festooned with great garlands of greenery and tinsel, suspended from the ceilings to hold circles of huge candles as lighting for feasts and holiday celebrations.
Today's Advent wreaths are smaller, designed to fit in homes and churches and be a part of family and community services. They can be purchased from many sources, although making a fresh one each year is a tradition for many people who mark the beginning of Advent by gathering fresh boughs of pine or fir. (Many use the trimmings from the Christmas tree for the wreath.)
Although some variations in shape, such as four candles in a log candle holder or arranged free-form on a mirror, can still offer a focal point for the lighting ceremony and the meditations, the traditional circular shape of the wreath carries its own meaning in the rituals -- that of an eternal circle. The meaning is the same as for wedding rings, never-ending spiritual life.
Fresh greenery also symbolizes new life and constantly growing faith, appropriate in celebrations looking forward to the birth of Jesus.
Four candles, usually tall tapers, in a circle of natural greenery decorated with lights, cones, and tinsel make up this centerpiece. The candles are burned each evening of Advent, one the first week, another added each following week, so that during the last week before Christmas all four candles are lighted.
The candle colors are chosen for their meaning. Catholics usually use three purple and one pink; purple ones are lit during weeks one, two, and four. The pink one is lit during the third and fourth weeks.
Purple, as it's used in Catholic ceremonies, symbolizes penitence (sorrow for wrong-doing) and humility. As a religious season, Advent is a time of solemn preparation for the Feast of Christmas -- the dawn of new Light in the world and the fulfillment of Hope with the birth of Jesus.
The pink candle is burned beginning with the third week of Advent to symbolize the "half-way" point in the dark time of waiting. The third Sunday of Advent is called "gaudete," Latin for "joy," which is the spiritual focus for that week of Advent meditations.
Some Protestant denominations who choose blue as the season's symbolic color use four blue candles in an Advent wreath. White or natural candles are also appropriate.
FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT: HOPE
The candles are lit each evening throughout Advent, and a spiritual ceremony accompanies the lighting. The first Sunday of Advent, the wreath is blessed with a prayer of HOPE, that might go something like:
"As our nights grow longer and our days shorter, we see these signs of nature -- light and greens -- and remember God's promise to the world, that a Savior would come."
The prayer is recited each evening of the following week, while the first (and only the first!) candle is lit, and left to burn during a meal or a time of meditation.
SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT: PEACE
On the second Sunday of Advent, a second candle is included. The week of hope is acknowledged by repeating the prayer from the previous week, then a prayer for peace is added while two candles are lighted.
These are allowed to burn during the meal and/or meditation following the lighting ceremony.
THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT: JOY
On the third Sunday of Advent, the third candle is added with a prayer of Joy. This week, the prayers for hope and peace are repeated briefly, then one for Joy as the third candle is lighted along with the first two.
This is the week to include the pink candle if it's included in the color choices.
FOURTH WEEK OF ADVENT: LOVE
The fourth Sunday, the one just before Christmas, the focus is LOVE. All four candles are light each evening during this week. The prayers acknowledge hope, peace and joy, and then add one of love.
CHRISTMAS EVE
Some families also include a white candle in the center of the wreath, to be lit on Christmas Eve along with the other four, to symbolize the Light of Jesus as an answer to the prayers of Hope, Peace, Joy and Love, of the preceding weeks.
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