Candlelight & Advent

After the darkest day, on December 21, there starts to be more and more daylight and less and less night.  December 25–Christmas!–celebrates this turning point.  It is a festival of light!  Lights on the Christmas tree, lights on houses, lights on shops, lights everywhere.

And the day finally becomes longer than the night at the Vernal Equinox on March 20-21, as celebrated at Easter!  Christ has overcome the darkness of death.

^“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5).  That’s Advent.  “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world” (John 1:9).  That’s Christmas.

“I am the light of the world,” says Jesus. “Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).  And because He is the light of the world, so are we:  “In the midst of a crooked and twisted generation,” says St. Paul, “you shine as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:15).  Like candles.

These thoughts came to me when I read the Anxious Bench post by Lynneth Renberg entitled Candles in the Darkness:  Advent, Hope, and Church History.  She tells of being in Norway, where it gets really dark during Advent, with nights 20 hours long.  On and around the Winter Solstice, the sun doesn’t come up over the horizon at all, but creates an eerie, dark blue twilight.

Renberg tells about the use of what the inhabitants call Advent candles during those times:

It’s dark here in Norway. The last time the sun rose above the mountains in Tromsø was on November 27, and it won’t return until January 15. This is what Norwegians call the “mørketid”- the dark time, or more poetically, “blåtid,” the blue time. . .

To a newcomer to Norwegian winter, there’s another key element to making it through the darkness, though, and that seems to be lys, or candles. Candles are everywhere right now, in stores, offices, windows, and churches. Many of these are advertised as adventlys, or Advent lights, although the term seems to be disconnected from the liturgical practice of Advent (candle holders marketed as advent lights hold between 3-9 candles). And it does seem to work– the candles flickering everywhere do indeed make the mørketid feel less dark.

Well, the people’s use of candles to get through the dark time is indeed connected to the liturgical use of candles in the Advent Wreath, but the connection goes the other way.  Of course people don’t light candles because that’s what they do in church.  Rather, they light candles in church because this is what people do in their ordinary lives.  Putting the candles in a circular wreath and lighting an additional candle each Sunday is a symbol and the best symbols are drawn from life.  The evergreen circle symbolizes the cyclical seasons of the year, a reminder that the darkness won’t last forever, and the increasing number of lit candles reminds us that the light is increasing.  And the liturgical context discloses what these natural facts mean; namely, the Advent–Latin for coming to–of Christ, who comes to us.  Norwegians understand this, which is why they call the candles they light during the dark time adventlys.

Anyway, Renberg goes into the history of the association of candles with Advent and Christmas.  She has written a book of Advent meditations drawn from the writings of ancient and medieval Christians–whom she considers “candles”–entitled Candles in the Darkness:  Experiencing Advent with the Early and Medieval Church.

Candles evoke mystery, transcendence, and hope.  A popular new phenomenon is the candlelight concert, which feature classical music played in a venue lit by thousands of candles.  Traveling troupes are putting on these concerts across America, especially in the days leading up to Christmas.  The comments at the website of the outfit that produces them keep saying “Inspiring!”

This is inspiring imitations.  Some of them are trying to combine candlelight solemnity with Abba, Queen, and other pop music, which I’m not sure is going to work.  But the Bach Society of St. Louis is having a candlelight concert the night before Christmas Eve.  I can’t wait.

Photo:  Carols by Candlelight, Melbourne, Christmas 1998 by DocklandsTony via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.