Advent: the four weeks before Christmas

Whether or not you count yourself as religious, spiritual, agnostic or whatever, the anticipation of Christmas each year seems to me to be a wonderful thing. Today is the first day of Advent 2020 – advent being the time in the liturgical year encompassing the four weeks before Christmas.

The word ‘advent’ conjures up notions of waiting, expectation, anticipation; an invitation to enjoy Christmas time. And surely we all need some peace, calm and hope at the end of 2020! We all want to feel something of the ‘glad tidings’ for everyone at the end of what has been a most difficult time.

It’s beginning to look a lot like…

Well, having visited Alnwick yesterday evening for the first time in several weeks, I was overjoyed to see the Christmas lights in the market square. It was very quiet, with hardly a soul around. Really nice to just stop, look, listen to the silence and enjoy the anticipation of Christmas.