The Christian liturgical year has different rhythms, colors, and festivals than the secular calendar (click here for a helpful overview). Some of our biggest secular holidays have religious roots (valentine's day, christmas, easter) - but usually alternative heroes and myths (cupid, santa, and the bunny), and a big focus on money, candy, and gifts (rather than anticipation, confession, or repentance). I think it's important to not only protest the commercialization of these holidays, but also to embrace a deeper, more transformative version of each celebration.Recognizing a different sense of time, a different calendar, is essential to re-orienting the rhythms and priorities of our lives. I have only celebrated the Christian liturgical "cycle" for a few years, but have found each of the seasons increasingly meaningful each year. Advent and Lent, seasons of preparation and reflection preceeding Christmas and Easter, were my first introductions to the Christian year. I first learned how essential a season of reflection and fasting was during Lent - how walking the road to the cross and sitting in the darkness of Good Friday deepened the miracle of Easter morning. Later I discovered how Advent is a season of waiting and lamenting, a season of sitting in the darkness in order to more deeply welcome and appreciate the light of the incarnation. Now I am exploring how to more deeply engage the seasons of Epiphany/Christmastide (after Christmas) and Eastertide (after Easter) - to balance the preparation with the celebration, so that it doesn't seem so anti-climactic having just one day of hopes realized.
Mustard Seed Associates, a community in Seattle, has created an alternative google calendar. You can also make or order a new calendar for 2009 which begins with Advent (and ends before next year's advent).
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment