The word Advent comes from the Latin word adventure which means "to arrive". Advent is a time of preparation; for children in particular it is a time of joyful anticipation, looking towards its fulfilment at Christmas.
During Advent, our thoughts and feelings of thankfulness look back to the past, yet it is also a festival of the present and of the future.
On Monday 4th December, Lower and Upper School students and staff, took a moment to balance the outward excitement of Christmas with the calm, quiet sense of presence created during the walking of the Advent Spiral.
Similarly, parents and friends of the school (adults) walked the Advent Spiral in Greenwood Hall, and
Kindergarten children and their parents came together with reverence, to walk smaller Advent Spirals in their respective Kindergarten rooms on Sunday evening.
Advent balances the darkness and sleepiness of the approaching winter, 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 Divali.
Blessings on your Advent-tide.
