Catholic New Year

Today, we decided to go to Mass--but do something slightly different. We visited a different Catholic parish in our neighborhood. This visit showed us that although the main structure of the Mass is the same, each church is slightly different.

 

For example, we knelt at different times, the congregation welcomed three new members to the church, and we noticed that instead of drinking the wine from a chalice at communion time, most people just dipped their wafers in the wine. At this church, after the Gospel reading, a woman gave a speech that seemed to be the homily. Usually the priest or the deacon gives the homily, but apparently a woman  was permitted in this church. It also used to be that only boys could be alter servers. We wonder why. Our church has boys and girls as altar servers. The church we visited today had adult altar servers, both men and women.

Just like at our church, when we sat down, we noticed the four Advent candles--which told us that there were only four weeks until Christmas. The picture above shows the four candles, three of them purple, one of them pink. The first two purple candles show us that we are waiting hopefully for the birth of our Savior. The third candle, the pink one, is a sign of celebration, since that is the last week before Catholics light the final candle, the Christmas one, on Christmas Eve. Catholic churches all over the world have wreaths such as this one at the time of Advent--and, like the Mass, each is slightly different. 

Another cause for celebration this week at Mass was the Catholic New Year. The Catholic Church's New Year is celebrated on the first week of Advent, which is, of course, a different date than the January 1st New Year. Catholics celebrate the new liturgical year on the first week of Advent because the start of a new Christmas season begins the new liturgical cycle.

All over the world, Christians are beginning to prepare for Christmas. Churches are lighting their Advent wreaths, families might be setting up their Nativity sets and perhaps even lighting their own wreaths as well. Different Christian denominations might have different traditions. What do you and your family do in order to prepare for Christmas? Comment on this post and let us know.