Blue – Lutherans began using blue, instead of purple and pink, in 1978 to note that Advent is different than Lent, which uses purple. There are, indeed, themes of quiet waiting, repentance, and a fasting from the full expression of Christmas. However, there is a joy, expectation and hope that can’t help but fill the days. Christ is arriving soon! Blue is the color of the sky at dawn when the sky begins to glow with the glory of the rising sun. In a similar way, the sky at dusk when darkness comes, quiets us, draws us inward, and urges us to trust the deeper senses to find our way. Even the darkness can birth new hope. This is felt powerfully by those in northern climates that experience the dramatic shortening of the daylight in winter.
Wreath – Before the arrival of Christianity, northern Europeans placed candles on a wagon wheel and hung it in the home, lighting more and more candles as the winter darkness deepened. Christians reimagined this wagon wheel as the wheel of eternity, God’s unending grace holding us in all seasons. Evergreen boughs symbolize green life, even in winter. There is no other real meaning of the candles than lighting one more each week, as the days get shorter, a practice of hope that the light will come again. Of course, it does grow again at the solstice, the return of the sun, now the son of Mary and Joseph, the Word of God made flesh.
