happy advent!
Dec. 1st, 2011 10:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marcicat“Is this a religious thing?” Al asked. “I never understand those.”
“Yes,” Matthew said.
Harold had already had this discussion with himself, but that wasn’t the conclusion he’d come to. “What? No, it’s not, is it? Advent is like a countdown to Christmas, with candy, and a calendar with little doors to open. Right?”
Cate was nodding, but Matthew shook his head. “Advent *calendars* have been adopted as a mainstream thing, and lots of them are non-religious, but advent itself is a religious thing. It’s supposed to be a period of waiting and preparation for the coming of Christ. First coming, second coming, both — it depends which church you’re part of.”
“Huh. That’s not what I thought we were celebrating,” Cate said.
“What are we trying to celebrate?” Harold asked. He thought it was a perfectly reasonable question.
“We’re celebrating… peace, and love, and joy and family, and all the good things that have gotten all wrapped up with the celebration of Christmas. I just figured not everyone would want to celebrate Christmas, and they wouldn’t all be able to be here then anyway, so it seemed like a good idea to do it for a whole month.”
“Advent doesn’t last a month,” Matthew said.
“Well, ours does,” Cate told him stubbornly.
“We are not making up a brand new holiday just so we can celebrate in an inclusive way,” Harold said. “Can’t we just appropriate advent and subvert it to a new purpose? Isn’t that what people usually do?”
There was silence as everyone considered the option. Harold noticed everyone sneaking looks at Harry, on the off chance he would offer some piece of future wisdom about what they ultimately decided. He pretended to be distracted by the baby, and ignored them all.
“I like it,” Al said finally.
“I don’t think people usually use the word subvert,” Matthew said. “But advent does mean ‘coming’ as far as I know. It could be a celebration of the coming year? Coming winter?”
“Can we say it’s a celebration of coming together?” Cate asked.
Harold thought that would probably be stretching it. “I think that would be a stretch,” he said. “But I’m game if everyone else is.”
(Is it weird to quote your own writing? It feels kind of weird, but it’s been kind of a weird day all around.)
Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.
