ADVENT, or Time of Advent (Lat., the approach or coming), a term applied, by the Christian church, to certain weeks before Christmas. In the Greek church, the time of A. comprises forty (bays; but in the Romish church, and those Protestant churches in which A. is observed, only four weeks. The origin of this festival, as a church ordi nance, is not clear. The first notice of A., as an appointment of the church, is found in the synod of Lerida (524 A.D.), at which marriages were interdicted from the begin pin^. of A. until Christmas. The four Sundays of A , as observed in the Romish church and the church of England, were probably introduced into the calendar by Gregory the great. It was common from an early period to speak of the coming of Christ as four Old: his " first coming in the flesh ;" his coining at the hour of death to receive his faith ful followers (according to the expressions used by St. John); his coming at the fall of Jerusalem (Matt. xxiv. 30); and at-the of judgment. According to this fourfold view of A., the "gospels" were chosen for the four Sundays, as was settled in the west ern church by the Homaarintn of Charlemagne. The festival of A. is intended to ac cord in spirit with the object celebrated. As mankind were once called upon to prepare themselves for the personal coming of Christ, so, according to the idea that the ecclesi astical year should represent the life of the founder of the church, Christians arc exhorted, during this festival, to look for a spiritual advent of Christ. The time of the year when
the shortening days are hastening towards the solstice—which almost coincides with the festival of the Nativity—is thought to harmonize with the strain of sentiment proper thinnw A. In opposition, possibly, to heathen festivals, observed by ancient Romans and Germans, which took place at the same season, the Catholic church ordained that the four weeks of A. should be kept as a time of penitence; according to the words of Christ: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." During these weeks, there fore, public amusements, marriage festivities and dancing were prohibited, fasts were appointed, and sombre garments were used in religious ceremonies. The Protestant church in Germany has also abstained from public recreations and celebrations of mar riage during A. It was perhaps a natural thought to begin the ecclesiastical year with the days of preparation for the coming of Christ. This was first done by the Nestorian church in the east in the 6th c.; the example was soon followed in Gaul, and afterwards became general throughout the west.