An excerpt from my December Newsletter....
Advent in Germany can simply not be equated with the Advent Season in the States. At least not from my own personal experience. In the U.S., Advent sneaks up on us amidst the preparations and celebrations of Thanksgiving and for many, the first Sunday in Advent is lost in recovering from said celebrations, shopping and the beginning of Christmas consume, and the stress of an obligation to bake, decorate, shop, write, and wrap, which, for many people, drives the Advent season. As a university student in the states, the entire first three weeks of Advent were lost amidst the stress and anxiety of writing papers, cramming for exams, and hoping, really, just to make it through to the end of the semester.
In such, Advent became less a season of waiting, and more a season of survival, with the destination of Christmas. Perhaps it is with this ‘End of the semester’-stress fresh in my recent past that I find Advent here this year different. Unique. More intentional and centered.
Without the celebration of Thanksgiving at the end of November, the Germans already anticipate the coming of Advent, rather than having it be masked and consumed by the ‘holiday rush.’ Here in Berlin, one week before the First Sunday of Advent, Advent wreaths, candles, and pine branches surfaced at the flower shops around the city. Beautiful three-dimensional stars were quietly unpacked, constructed and hung above the altars of churches. St. Nicholas chocolates, Stollen, and gingerbread appeared in the aisles of supermarkets. The wooden stands of Christmas markets, Christmas lights, and pine emerged in various forms (some with more kitsch than others) on the streets of the city. Friends, partners, and families worked diligently to handcraft and package a unique and meaningful Advents calendar for loved ones.
And then, exactly four weeks before Christmas, it begins – Advent! With the opening of the first door or package of the Advent calendar, the Christmas markets throughout the city were opened, people were greeted with “Happy First Sunday of Advent!” and the season of ‘coming’ began.
The ‘coming’ is, however, marked less by the stress of all that must be crossed off on the ‘to-do list.’ Instead, the Advent season is an opportunity, a privileged and sacred time to spend together with family and friends. Invitations to bake Christmas cookies or sing carols abound, and frequent are the trips to the infamous German Christmas markets with the intent, yes, to potentially buy a gift for family and friends, but moreso to be warmed by the comfort of friends and a glass of mulled wine, and simply to bask in the Advent joy, the Christmas spirit.
It is this Advent that brings me back to my childhood days in which Advent was really the season of waiting, the season of making homemade hardtack candy after Thanksgiving, the season of baking Christmas cookies with my mother and decorating them with my sisters, the season of unpacking and hanging Christmas ornaments, the season in search of the perfect Christmas tree, and preparing for our annual neighborhood caroling party. It is an Advent season that I partially overlooked and on which I missed out during my years in high school and at the university, and perhaps therefore, one that I now see here through a different perspective. One which I can now embrace in a conscientious way and with a joyful heart. I say that Advent in Germany is different, because it IS. At least for me.
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