What is the origin of keeping the advent period, advent wreath, and advent calendar?
According to present usage Advent is the period beginning with the Sunday nearest to the feast of St Andrew (30 November). It embraces four Sundays. The First Sunday may be as early as 27 November and then Advent has 28 days or as later as 3 December giving the season only 21 days (C.E. Advent, vol. I, p. 165). The ecclesiastical year begins with Advent in the western churches. The Church uses this period to prepare for the anniversary of the Lord’s coming into the world in other words to prepare for the Christmas festivals. That is the true origin of the practice. The dates of the decrees in the Nocturn also demonstrate this origin. As Lesson of the First Nocturne the prophet Isaiah is used to showing the scathing castigation of the children of Israel and the gathering of the gentiles. The Lessons for the Second Nocturn, the lessons on three Sundays are taken from the eighth homily of Pope Leo (440-461) on fasting and almsdeeds. On the second Sunday the Lesson is taken from Jerome’s C
