Advent
(my attempt at a slighlty more meaningful discussion about a less important issue that is part of a very much bigger and important thing)
Ok, here is my question. Why is advent 4 weeks long? (ok, between 3 weeks 1 day to 4 weeks, depending on the year). The best thing I can think of is that 4 weeks is a good amount of time to cover 4 aspects of the events leading up to christmas (ie. old testament prophecy, John the baptist's message, The message comming to Mary about her child, and the shepherds learning about the birth), but is this the only reason?
It is a question I didn't think that anyone would ask, but then someone did. So, what do you reckon?
posted by Martin at 19:23
2 Comments:
In the 5th Century, Advent began on 11 November (St Martin's Day - really) and took the form of a six week fast leading to Christmas. During the 6th century, Advent was reduced to its current length and later the fasting was dropped. So it is arbitrary mate. No rationale to it at all.
St
Thanks St. Just leads to another question though. If it is arbitrary, then should it changed? Is four weeks right for our circumstances? Having asked that, I will say that 4 weeks is good for me, just not sure if it is for everyone. Oh, and slightly less importantly, which St Martin - I know at least 3, but I doubt it's any of them ;-).
ME
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