After Thanksgiving, the countdown to Christmas begins. The annual celebration, where we celebrate that the light wins over the darkness. Humans have always celebrated the event that light returns with power and life in the dark winter. With Christianity, an important dimension was added to that narrative because with Christ coming to earth, it was not only light that won over darkness, but also the life that won over death and love over evil.

The shops start with Christmas already immediately after Halloween. Christmas presents, Christmas food and Christmas decorations fill the shelves of the shops and create both expectation and need, and you can easily be left with the question of where Jesus ended up in all the Christmas hustle and bustle. We can easily forget why we actually celebrate Christmas.

One way to keep track of the countdown to Christmas is by using a Christmas calendar. Twenty-four doors with 24 small surprises behind the doors are the children's favourite. The tradition of the Christmas calendar is German and spread from there to the entire Western world in the 19th century.

Another way to count down to Christmas that I like the most is to light a calendar candle. The calendar candle is a Danish invention that was first factory-produced by Danske Asp-Holmblad in 1942 during World War II. Before that, the kids made their own calendar candles by decorating a candle. Since the war, the tradition of the calendar candle has spread to both homes, workplaces, and schools, where one struggles to keep up - or not to burn too much of the candle.

I like the calendar candle so much because every time you turn on a light, you remove something dark in the world. And especially a candle that spreads coziness in the December darkness is good protection against the darkness - both the physical and the one between people.

The calendar candle is also one of the bestsellers in our Danish Christmas bazaar, where we have imported several hundred Danish calendar candles to Canada.

We also have our calendar candle in the church, namely the Advent wreath with its four candles lit on the four Sundays of Advent. The four Sundays we approach the manger on Christmas night through the Bible texts, the hymns and the prayers and for many, it cannot become Christmas without having been to church during the Advent Sundays.

The tradition of the Advent wreath is also from Germany and dates back to 1839.

When we meet in church Christmas Morning that is one of the points in the beautiful text we read from the book of John: "In him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it." (John 1,4-5). 

The life that came to earth Christmas night was the light that even the darkest

darkness could not get hold of.  That is why we celebrate Christmas for weeks. And that is why we light the advent calendar and the Danish Christmas candles. 

With the wishes of a blessed period of Advent full of light and candles,

Pastor Simon