German Advent Customs and French Presses
Happy New Years! First post of 2006! Hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday. Mine was certainly full of work and travel! Today I've been going through my room cleaning out old papers and getting stuff ready for the start of a new semester. I also purchased my advent candle for the next year since Christmas stuff is going on clearance. For those of you not familiar with Advent celebration, Advent is almost as important to those of European extraction as Christmas day itself. My mother's side is half-German and half-British, so everyone had Advent calendars and candles and seeing such things brings back fond memories of Christmases past. We also preserved the German custom of opening gifts on Christmas Eve so we could spend time as a family Christmas day.
If you never have seen an advent candle, they come in two different types. One type is a wreath containing 4 or 5 candles. Starting on the 4th sunday before Christmas, you light one candle each Sunday until you get to the final candle, which is either the Sunday before Christmas or Christmas day (like this year!). The fifth optional candle in the center of the wreath is lit on Christmas day. These types of advent candles are fairly common to find, although I haven't really seen them much here in America except for gorgeous nativity wreaths in churches where the candles are lit before the sermon starts. The other type of advent candle is a tall candle with 24 markings spaced down the candle. Starting with the 24th day before Christmas, you gather as a family each evening and burn down the candle 1 mark until you finish it off Christmas day. These candles are much more difficult to find as this custom tends to be more isolated to the Protestant German community, although some Danish or German import stores on the web have them. Here is what mine looks like. The basic idea of the candles and celebrating Advent is that when you light the candle, it not only marks down the days until Christmas, but, as imparted to me, is also a kind of a time-out to reflect on the meaning of the holiday and the upcoming end of the year. While some might criticize such a custom as keeping a calendar or burning a candle as silly or superstitious, I kind of like the idea of preserving Advent as it encourages family time and its meditative aspect kind of balances out what has turned into the big time capitalist part of Christmas of receiving gifts and being stressed out.
For my birthday next month, I'm the lucky recipient of a gorgeous Bodum Eileen French Press! This brewing method is supposed to make coffee so stout it will walk away from its cup. I can't wait for the big day so I can use it!
If you never have seen an advent candle, they come in two different types. One type is a wreath containing 4 or 5 candles. Starting on the 4th sunday before Christmas, you light one candle each Sunday until you get to the final candle, which is either the Sunday before Christmas or Christmas day (like this year!). The fifth optional candle in the center of the wreath is lit on Christmas day. These types of advent candles are fairly common to find, although I haven't really seen them much here in America except for gorgeous nativity wreaths in churches where the candles are lit before the sermon starts. The other type of advent candle is a tall candle with 24 markings spaced down the candle. Starting with the 24th day before Christmas, you gather as a family each evening and burn down the candle 1 mark until you finish it off Christmas day. These candles are much more difficult to find as this custom tends to be more isolated to the Protestant German community, although some Danish or German import stores on the web have them. Here is what mine looks like. The basic idea of the candles and celebrating Advent is that when you light the candle, it not only marks down the days until Christmas, but, as imparted to me, is also a kind of a time-out to reflect on the meaning of the holiday and the upcoming end of the year. While some might criticize such a custom as keeping a calendar or burning a candle as silly or superstitious, I kind of like the idea of preserving Advent as it encourages family time and its meditative aspect kind of balances out what has turned into the big time capitalist part of Christmas of receiving gifts and being stressed out.
For my birthday next month, I'm the lucky recipient of a gorgeous Bodum Eileen French Press! This brewing method is supposed to make coffee so stout it will walk away from its cup. I can't wait for the big day so I can use it!
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