this page:
Fasts and Feasts
of Advent
see also :
recipes

Advent

A Season
of Preparation
•
Advent Wreath:
Prayers - Customs
•
Meditations for
Each Week
•
About St. Nicholas
•
Gingerbread


Christmas

Introduction
•
Christmas
Prayers and Customs
•
Prayers for
the Home
•
Prayers for
the New Year
•
Prayers for
the Family
•
Feast of
the Epiphany


Site Introduction

"What should we make to eat?"

That question invariably arises when preparations are under way for the arrival of a guest, especially an honored or long-awaited one. Advent, when Christians prepare to commemorate the arrival of the Christ Child, is no different.

Both the Old and New Testaments are generously peppered with references to farming and feasting, and to bestowing food on both strangers and loved ones. Abraham and Sarah unwittingly entertained three angels with calf, curds, and milk (Gen. 18:1-16). To satisfy the hunger of the crowds that followed him, Jesus fed them with an abundance of bread and fish (Matthew 15: 29-37). "The Lord of hosts will provide for all peoples a feast of rich foods and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines," promised the prophet Isaiah (25: 6). Jesus referred to himself as "the bread of life" (John 6:35) and, significantly, the Hebrew name for Bethlehem, the site of the Savior's birth, is Bethlehem, which means "house of bread." [right: Rubev's Three Visitors]

Precisely when Advent, the approximately four-week period preceding Christmas, first came to be observed is debated. But originally it was a penitential period similar to Lent. In 380 the Council of Saragossa stressed daily church attendance from December 17 until the Epiphany. Pope St. Leo I (the Great), best known for persuading Attila the Hun to spare Rome from destruction in the fifth century, called for fasting on the Wednesdays and Fridays in the weeks before Christmas.

In 581 the Synod of Mac in present-day France called for fasting on the Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from November 11, the feast of St. Martin of Tours, up to and including Christmas Eve, December 24.  The Council of Constantinople in 1166 set the fast to begin on November 15.

In the Greek Orthodox tradition, Advent remains to this day a solemn season, with the faithful abstaining from meat, fish other than shellfish, dairy products, and sweets in the days leading up to Christmas. In some Eastern churches, the pre-Christmas fast is known as St. Philip's Fast, because it begins on the day after the feast of St. Philip the Apostle, November 14.

Nonetheless, even in the ancient days of Advent commemoration, a variety of food traditions sprang up. Associated with the holy days that fall during the season, these traditions reinforce the concepts of compassion and hospitality that lie at the core of Christianity. They resonate with symbolism of warmth overtaking cold, light dispelling darkness, love conquering hate-in short, the message of Christmas itself.

For St. Martin, a Goose and a Biscuit

top of page