Chapter 16: Advent, the New Year of the Church

Most Australians know about Chinese New Year, Hanukkah, Ramadan and Loy Krathong, but many don't know that the Christian Church has a New Year celebration called Advent Sunday, four weeks before Christmas. In America this post-Thanksgiving feast is well known, and children's Advent Calendars for the countdown to Christmas are common. Advent Calenders (crafty, commercial and often e-calendars these days) have pockets for each day before Christmas, that open to reveal gifts and surprises, including Christian prayers, music and reflections. The Advent season is both a new beginning, and a time for preparation, so we are ready to celebrate the saving presence of Jesus Christ among us. All Christmas customs - decorations, the gift-giving, and family visits -  grew out of Christian gratitude for the birth of one little baby boy who, in the space of his short earthly life, miraculously laid the foundations of an unshakeable faith in God that reformed the values, laws and social structures of the Roman Empire and it's subject peoples.