Advent a collection by Amber Risucci

Transcription

1 Advent a collection by Amber Risucci In our family, we celebrate many of the wonderful winter traditions. One of the most important and beautiful celebrations we do is Advent. Advent is a time of reflection and bringing light into the darkening days before the Winter Solstice and Christmas day. It seems to have a real impact on the children and involves them in the process of preparation that is ongoing during this time. We start by either making or buying a wreath of greens and placing 4 candles, one at each directional point. Four Sundays before Christmas we begin by lighting the first candle, saying the first verse, singing a couple of Advent songs and keeping them lit through our Sunday dinner. Each night of the week thereafter, we go through that ritual during our dinnertime. The children then snuff out the candle with our special candlesnuffer. St Nicholas (on December 6 th ) brings the children a beeswax Angel Candle (if he can find one) and this candle is added to the center of our wreath to light on Christmas Eve and morning. Each week we add some special gifts to the Advent wreath that are appropriate to the week we are celebrating a crystal the first week, a moss covered branch, pinecone or flower the second week, a birds nest that was left in a barren tree the third week and generally a star or something that connects us to the human for the fourth week. After dinner we open a door on our Advent Calendar. Our Advent Calendar has the most amazing way of revealing images that apply very specifically to what we have been doing that day its quite extraordinary! We also try to participate in an Advent Spiral. The description follows and is an AMAZING experience to be part of. I have collected a few pieces of information and imagery to help understand better Advent and its purpose. Thoughts about an Advent Festival As winter approaches in the Northern Hemisphere, there is a growing mood of the outer sleepiness of the world. Through the stories, poems and songs we bring, and their own observation of nature, the children can experience a settling down, a feeling of being blanketed for a winter s nap. The fallen leaves, the animals in hibernation, the shorter

2 daylight hours, which bring us inside much earlier than at other times of the year, all contribute to this experience. Advent balances the darkness and sleepiness with expectation and anticipation. It is a time of moving through the darkness toward the yearly rebirth of the light, when the days begin to grow longer. Advent is really a four week festival, the four weeks leading up to Christmas and Solstice, starting on a Sunday evening. Many religions celebrate festivals of the returning of the light. Among those festivals are Solstice, Chanukah, Christmas and Diwali. The mood of Advent can be experienced in Beethoven s Ninth Symphony so much preparation for the choral climax that has the feeling of the light beginning to grow stronger again. During Advent, we can deepen our relationship to the world around us through recognizing the strength and beauty in all the four kingdoms of the natural world. The first week is related to the mineral kingdom, the physical foundation for life. The mineral world gives us a fixed stage, a basis for our ever-changing existence. Without the mineral world we would have no ground to stand on. The second week focuses on the plant kingdom from which we receive nourishment from living forces. Earth, rain, light and warmth create a balance of growth and decay. The plant world has life that distinguishes it from the mineral world. It is life itself which human beings share with the plants. The third week focuses on the kingdom of beasts. We share our capacity for movement and feelings with the animal kingdom. In this week of Advent we are reminded of our relationship with the birds, beasts and other members of the animal kingdom and how they reflect our most basic soul states. The fourth week of Advent speaks of the human being. All the kingdoms of nature contribute to our existence. We all have mineral, plant and animal aspects surrounding and supporting the flame of our individual human spirit, this flame that is the essence of what it is to be human. Advent can move us toward a deeper understanding of our place in the universe, of all that supports us and all that we aspire to, as well as all that needs our protection and support. We celebrate the Advent Garden, which brings the mood of Advent and the experience of moving from darkness to light to the children in a simple way. The children arrive to a fully prepared festival space. They walk to the center of the spiral path of evergreens, a path not lighted. The children bring with them a red apple with a candle in that they light from the burning candle in the center of the spiral. They then place their candle carefully down on the path as they walk back out. The festival begins in darkness and ends brightly lit by the many

3 candles. We have a moment to sit in silence together before the children are taken home to bed with this beautiful feeling of reverence. The garden of evergreens is a symbol of life everlasting. Arranged in a spiral, the path represents the path to birth and the process of incarnating. The apple is a picture of the body, the house that we live in. The red symbolizes our blood and our forces of will. The flame of the candle is the flame of our individual human spirit. The Advent Garden is an imaginative experience of our individual spirit light incarnating into life on Earth, and how it is able to dispel the darkness around us. In community, our spirits shining together shed a mighty light. Taken from the Susquehanna Waldorf School Website Advent Garden Deep Mid-Winter drawing near, Darkness in our Garden here - One small flame yet bravely burns To show a path which ever turns. Earth, please bear us as we go, Seeking Light to send a-glow: Branches green and moss and fern, Mark our path to trace each turn. Brother animals, teach us too To serve with patience as you do. We walk with candle toward the Light While Earth awaits with hope so bright: In the Light which finds new birth Love may spread o er all the Earth. Deep Mid-Winter drawing near - May Light arise in our Garden here.

4 Advent Wreath Verse (our family s version in parentheses) The first light of Advent is the light of stones. Stones that live in crystals, seashells, and bones. The second light of Advent is the light of plants. Roots, stem, leaf, flower and fruit by which we live and grow. (The second Light of Advent it is the light of plants. Plants that rise up to the sun and in the breezes dance) The third light of Advent is the light of beasts. Animals of farm, field, forest, air and sea. All await the birth in greatest and in least. (The third light of Advent it is the light of beasts. That we may learn to love the greatest and the least) The fourth light of Advent is the light of humankind (of woman and man). The light of love, the light of thought, to give and to understand. Advent Song (our family s version) Advent, Advent a candle glows First one, then two, then three, then four Then stand the Angels at the door

5 I am constantly grappling with the concepts and belief systems of each holiday and tradition that comes up. I am always looking for meaning and origins for why we do what we do and what the significance is for them. Lately I have been trying to figure out how to include some of these clearly Christian traditions into a home that otherwise does not really speak to this belief ideology. I have nothing against it and even find it to have inspirational tones that run through it but without being religious how do I allow spirituality to resound in my house and throughout my children s lives? With that being said, here are some incredible explanations of the spiral and a very appropriate quote for the celebration of Christmas as a tradition: The Cosmic Spiral (Taken from various online sources) A few spiral meanings: Balance, Progress, Direction, Initiation, Centering, Expanding, Awareness, Connection, Journeying, Development. Evolution and holistic growth Letting go, surrender, release Awareness of the one within the context of the whole Connectivity and union with deific and cosmic energies Revolutions of time, stars, planets and the way of natural progress Carl Jung, the famous psychiatrist, said that the spiral is an archetypal symbol that represents cosmic force. In ancient Britain, the spiral seems to have been associated with the feminine as the doorway to life. It has been associated with the cycles of time, the seasons, the cycle of birth, growth, death, and then rebirth. The cycles of time and nature are the cycles of life.

6 Some consider the spiral a symbol of the spiritual journey. It is also considered to represent the evolutionary process of learning and growing. It seems that life doesn't proceed in a straight line. The paths of life more closely resemble a spiral. We seem to pass the same point over and over again but from a different perspective each time. To walk and then stand in the center of a spiral or labyrinth has been a psycho-spiritual exercise for centering the consciousness. The spiral stands for coming into being. The spiral shows up often in nature - in hurricanes and tornados, in the pattern of seeds in a sunflower, in the growing tips of ferns, in the pattern that leaves grow on a stem, in the shape of a nautilus shell, and, as a helix, the shape of the DNA molecule. The spiral is the journey of life " Shall we liken Christmas to the web in a loom? There are many weavers, who work into the pattern the experience of their lives. When one generation goes, another comes to take up the weft where it has been dropped. The pattern changes as the mind changes, yet never begins quite anew. At first, we are not sure that we discern the pattern, but at last we see that, unknown to the weavers themselves, something has taken shape before our eyes, and that they have made something very beautiful, something which compels our understanding." --Earl W. Count, 4,000 Years of Christmas Advent is a perfect opportunity to take things slow, to allow the season to flow through your family. To spend a little time each night reflecting and being present with each other. It is an opportunity to share light and warmth. It is a tradition that shuts out the mania of the retail countdown and opens a window into an internal more purposeful countdown. Our family LOVES it!

7 Transparent Window Stars or Star Sun catchers 1. Cut out 8 squares and lay them flat on your table. 2. Fold each square diagonally in half. 3. Open the folded paper and then fold each side to the middle folded line as a long fold from the bottom of the middle crease. 4. When both sides are folded, it should look like a basic kite shape 5. Continue folding until all eight squares are completed. 6. Take the glue stick and place glue on the top right corner of the fat pointed side of the paper. (right side up) 7. Lay the next finished piece over the first making sure the edges line up. You can use the center folded line of each piece as a guide. 8. Continue in this manner until all of the points are added. On the last piece, place glue on the right side of the 7th piece and also on the left side of the 1st piece in the top corner. This ensures that the last added piece is glued underneath from both sides. 9. This is the finished star. On the backside, you may use a couple of pieces of clear sticky tape to give the star extra stability from the back. Use tape to hang up. You can make tape rings and place on the backside of the star and just press it on the window.