I’ve heard of it. I know it’s Christian, and that it is one of a set of divisions of the year which have colors and start dates and end dates (Lent is another, damned if I can remember the rest) and have nonstandard sizes. I think Advent is green, I’m pretty sure it’s in the vicinity of Christmas. How’s that for a nonChristian?
Yes, I know what Advent is. Catholic here, so clearly a big part of the Christimas celebration.
Oh and jjimm, the “Catholic lite” thing is a fairly common joke here, it’s not meant to imply any actual relationship. 
I am Presbyterian (Trinity Presbyterian to be exact) and we celebrate Advent. I have my advent wreath on my table at home. My Methodist stepfather celebrates it as well.
But I am in the “bible belt” and there are many, many who don’t know what Advent is. My baptist boyfriend, my baptist roommate, and my baptist roommate’s boyfriend all questioned me as to why I put a wreath with purple and pink and white candles on the kitchen table. Not saying that all Baptists are unaware of the season of Advent, but here we have far more Baptists than anything else; Catholics, Presbyterians, Methodists, Episcopalians, etc. are a minority. It makes sense that they had never heard of it.
Oh, and AHunter3, on our calendars the liturgical color for Advent is purple. Green is for the growing season.
I don’t know if that’s universal, though.
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I’d heard of it, but I had no idea what it was before seeing it explained in this thread.
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Pittsburgh, PA.
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Moslem father, Christian (African Methodist Episcopal) grandparents, agnostic me
- Yes.
- Sweden
- Atheist
Advent is a big tradition in Sweden (Sweden is mainly protestant, although very secularised).
We have advent calendars as someone mentioned above. Every year there is one on TV and on radio for the kids. It is mostly quite non-religious. We also have the variant with chocolate in.
On the first Sunday of Advent we light a candle and then another every other Sunday of Advent.
I know that the churches have some activities around it but I don´t know exactly what they do.
Sorry, I was taking it too seriously… It’s easy to get carried away if you recall the reason for the existence of the Episcopalean Church - i.e. Henry VIII wanting to bang some chick who wasn’t his wife, and then what he did to Catholics after the Pope told him he couldn’t… :eek:
- Yes.
- US
- Raised secular-Catholic, now not religious.
And I’d forgotten all about those chocolate calendars. Damn, those were good.
Yes. West coast U.S. agnostic with atheist leanings, but Medieval-Renaissance history interests.
I did not learn about Advent from my church (an independent “Church of Christ”, decidedly NOT Scientist) when growing up. However, I had friends that had Advent calendars as gifts, and I got one (with chocolate! yum!) one year myself. For years as a kid I thought it was just a gift thing, until my curiosity was piqued enough for me to look it up. I remember being rather surprised that it had a religious connection.
- Yes
- Mid-Atlantic area, US
- Lutheran
My kids have the little cardboard Advent calendars that they got in Sunday School, we have an Advent wreath that we made at the Advent workshop at church, and we have a wooden Christmas tree with wooden numbered stars that the kids hang on the tree, one each day in December up till the 25th.
I’ve been reading both Cisco’s original thread and the Pit thread, but didn’t have anything to add just yet. Everything I wanted to say had already been said.
- Yes. The shops sell advent calendars (usually commercial, with chocolate in and film/Tv characters on the front, which start on 1 Dec and some people have advent candles.
- North-East England
- Atheist
Like every other Catholic, I know what Advent is.
And, as others have noted, I’m surprised that there are educated people who HAVEN’T heard of it. I’m not Jewish, but I know what Purim is. I’m not a Moslem, but I know what Ramadan is. I’m not black, but I know what Kwaanza is.
So, it’s hard for me to grasp how (short of living in a cave) Cisco could have been utterly unfamiliar with Advent.
- Yes
- England.
- Raised secular humanist, but was exposed to Bible stories at school.
Yes.
This year, I found out that there are more than a few protestant churches that don’t recognize advent (all of the ones I’d ever attended had, so I thought it was a given, like, say, Easter. And I’ve also always been in non-liturgical (or at least very low liturgical churches)) and it is kind of overshadowed by the mega-event that is approaching, so I could see never having heard of it.
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US, Washington State.
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Evangelical protestant. Oh, and it’s a 5 candle advent wreath (4 sundays and the one in the center for Christmas) and all the candles are the same color.
Yes, I’ve known since I was a little kid what advent was, and what an advent calendar is and what an advent wreath is.
For what it’s worth, I grew up Protestant (Disciples of Christ, to be precise).
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Nope. Always wondered what the hell the caledars were for.
Never gave any thought to the possibility of a secular holiday. -
Live in Utah. (That probably expains it.)
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Atheist.
- Yep I’d heard of Advent.
- Alberta
- Recovering Catholic
I’ve always gone to Catholic schools up here and though I can’t recall anything special for grades 1/2 after we moved every year we would have this big tree put up in the auditorium and students from each class would get up each day, say something and put up a special ornament to signify the true meaning of Christmas. We also had an Advent wreath, 3 purple candles 1 pink for the last Sunday before Christmas.
I’d actually be kinda surprised if any Catholic’s hadn’t heard of it. It seems from my recollections Advent was/is a major part of the Christmas celebrations for them.
Oh, and I love the Chocolate calenders. I still buy them for myself. 
- Yep. I’m Catholic.
Er… yes, it rings a bell.