#Haikai Challenge #115 (11/30/19): Advent #haiku #senryu #haibun #tanka #haiga #renga

*Jonathunder [CC BY-SA 3.0 (**https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0**) or GFDL (**http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.htm**l)%5D, from Wikimedia Commons*

Thank you for celebrating your Thanksgiving, haijin. Congratulations to last week’s contributors:

Haikai Challenge Participants

1. Jade Li/Lisa
2. Dwight L. Roth
3. Tessa
4. Reena Saxena
5. Indira

6. Peter
7. Jane Dougherty
8. Jules
9. Xenia Tran
10. Janice

11. Linda Lee Lyberg
12. Kerfe Roig
13. Frank J. Tassone
14. Pat R
15. Ken Gierke / rivrvlogr

Ultreya!

Thanksgiving has ended. The last day of November is upon us. Leftovers abound in our house, and we’re decorating the house for Christmas.

Another year, another Advent:

Advent is a season observed in many Christian churches as a time of expectant waiting and preparation for both the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas and the return of Jesus at the Second Coming. The term is a version of the Latin word meaning “coming”. The term “Advent” is also used in Eastern Orthodoxy for the 40-day Nativity Fast, which has practices different from those in the West.^[3]
The Latin word adventus is the translation of the Greek word parousia, commonly used to refer to the Second Coming of Christ. For Christians, the season of Advent anticipates the coming of Christ from three different perspectives. Philip H. Pfatteicher, formerly a professor at East Stroudsberg University, notes that “since the time of Bernard of Clairvaux (d.1153), Christians have spoken of the three comings of Christ: in the flesh in Bethlehem, in our hearts daily, and in glory at the end of time”.^[4] The season offers the opportunity to share in the ancient longing for the coming of the Messiah, and to be alert for his Second Coming.
Advent is the beginning of the Western liturgical year and commences on the fourth Sunday before Christmas (sometimes known as Advent Sunday), the Sunday nearest to St. Andrew’s Day (30 November), in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, the Western Rite of the Orthodox Church, and in the Anglican, Lutheran, Moravian, Presbyterian, and Methodist calendars.^[5] In the Ambrosian Rite and the Mozarabic Rite of the Catholic Church, Advent begins on the sixth Sunday before Christmas, the Sunday after St. Martin’s Day (11 November).^[6]
Practices associated with Advent include keeping an Advent calendar, lighting an Advent wreath, praying an Advent daily devotional,^[1] erecting a Christmas tree or a Chrismon tree,^[1] lighting a Christingle,^[2] as well as other ways of preparing for Christmas, such as setting up Christmas decorations,^[7][8][9] a custom that is sometimes done liturgically through a hanging of the greens ceremony.^[1][10] The equivalent of Advent in Eastern Christianity is called the Nativity Fast, but it differs in length and observances, and does not begin the liturgical church year as it does in the West. The Eastern Nativity Fast does not use the equivalent parousia in its preparatory services.^[11]

Here in the Northern hemisphere the darkness lengthens and deepens until December 21st. Then the days lengthen. Is that not a sign of hope? What better kigo for this week, then, but Advent?

This week, write the haikai poem of your choice (haiku, senryu, haibun, tanka, haiga, renga) that alludes to advent.

As always:

Here’s how the challenge works:

1. write the haikai poem of your choice.
2. post the link of your post to Mister Linky.
3. pingback by posting the link to the challenge on your site.
4. read and comment on other contributors’ posts.