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Bookswithtea
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We are planning to more carefully delineate between Advent and Christmas this year. I am confused about Gaudete Sunday. Is this traditionally celebrated as one day of pink and then back to purple, or do I leave all pink decoration additions up through to the end of Advent? 
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mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and  due 9/10
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Mackfam
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It's one day of rose, Books, and then back to violet.
It's named for the opening of the Introit - "Gaudete" - which means rejoice and the priest wears rose vestments on this day. Advent is a penitential season and Gaudete Sunday is a sort of punctuation (with emphasis!!!) of joy within that penitential season. Even though Advent is penitential it's hard to contain the joy of anticipation of the coming of the little Divine Infant, and it all sort of spills out on Gaudette Sunday - "Rejoice, the Lord is near!" It's meant to herald the nearing of the end of Advent and that we are so very close to the coming of the Savior.
This year it falls on December 13, the 3rd Sunday of Advent.
A couple of links for you:
O' Night Divine - Rejoice in the Lord Always - Gaudete Sunday
Catholic Culture - Advent, December 13, Gaudete Sunday
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Jen Mackintosh
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Mimip
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Books,
Gaudette Sunday is very special in our house because of a special celebration that fell on that day years ago and one way that we honor it is by dressing in rose/pink for Mass that day.
In the middle of the winter/Advent it makes a really big impact to see a sea of pink in the pew. My husband and sons have rose shirts that they wear on that day and then we take a family picture with our dear priest who is dressed in Rose for the Mass as well. So many years I want to use that picture for our Christmas card but my dh thinks our friends will think we are nuts without a clear explanation. 
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Mimi
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missionfamily
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It may not be the most liturgically correct way, but we've always celebrated it as "pink week" in our house since we light the pink candle all week. We try to remember the joy we're supposed to feel as we wait for the Savior and we incorporate pink into our week in small ways--drinking pink lemonade with dinner, having ham sandwiches at lunch, having strawberry milk at breakfast on that Sunday. And we try to do something that will make us all laugh each evening--we play charades, have a pillow fight, or read joke books to each other. I also try to tell the kids stories of joyful memories I have of being pregnant for each them, waiting their births. It helps to bring home that joy of anticipation.
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Mackfam
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The other ladies' responses remind me that we (as a Church) do continue lighting the pink/rose candle for the remainder of Advent. So, you'd light the rose candle on the 3rd Sunday of Advent, and if you light your Advent candles on your family Advent wreath each night of Advent it is absolutely appropriate to continue lighting that rose candle every evening after the 3rd Sunday of Advent. Does that make sense?
I admit that like Colleen, we too get so very excited once Gaudete Sunday rolls around. I love her ideas to continue the rose/pink theme throughout the week.
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Jen Mackintosh
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Wildflowers and Marbles
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Bookswithtea
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OK, so if I am going to use the word HOPE on my mantle (a la Elizabeth's word mantles), I could have an extra pink O and E and change them out for Sunday, but then go back to purple the rest of the week, even if we continue lighting our advent candles every night? And if we put pink bows on our Christmas tree (decorated only in purple lights at this point), we take the pink bows back off on Monday? My kids are going to think its weird that the pink goes away after 24 hrs when we continue to light our candle all week.
Maybe it would make more sense to them to drop the pink on the 4th Sunday of Advent???
What would y'all do?
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~Books
mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and due 9/10
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Mackfam
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I think you could probably do either, Books...but if it were me...I'd leave the pink on the mantle and on the tree after Gaudete Sunday as a reminder of the closeness of the coming of Our Little Lord. I think it would be perfectly appropriate to do so especially since there will still be the lovely violet lights on the tree and the violet on the mantle. Just me though...I definitely don't think there's a right or wrong answer here. You can see that Colleen lives Gaudete in her family with ham and pink lemonade (that makes me smile!  )...I think your ideas sound really lovely!
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Jen Mackintosh
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Mackfam
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Plus...the Church doesn't stop lighting the rose candle after Gaudete Sunday!
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Jen Mackintosh
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Bookswithtea
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Yeah, that is where I'm leaning now, after rereading all the posts. I think we'll leave the pink up. It feels sort of sad to imagine taking it all down. I *love* the idea of pink food on Gaudete Sunday! I am definitely going to plan something like that.
I read somewhere that in some countries Advent was very penitential but in other countries it developed with a more expectant/gentle penitential feel. I tend to lean more towards the second and leave strict penance to Lent. I am all for extra sacrifices and alms during Advent, but it feels strange to me to have that strict penitential focus in Advent. Is that weird?
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mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and due 9/10
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Mackfam
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I thought you might find this interesting, Books...
From Father Francis Weiser's Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs:
Quote:
The celebration of Christ's nativity on December 25 was introduced as a special feast in Rome about the middle of the fourth century. It quickly spread through the Roman empire and the West, and by the fifth century was already established in Gaul and Spain. Since it was one of the main feasts of the Christian year, a spiritual preparation soon began to be held. From the Church in Gaul comes the first news about a definite period prescribed for this preparation. Bishop Perpetuus of Tours (490) issued the regulation that a fast should be held on three days of every week from the Feast of St. Martin (November 11) to Christmas. The name Advent was not yet used for this preparatory period; it was called Quadragesima Sancti Martini (Forty Days' Fast of Saint Martin's).
This practice of keeping a penitential season before Christmas spread all through France, Spain, and later also to Germany. The fast, however, was started at different times (September 24, November 1 or 11 or 14, December 1). For Mass texts on the weekdays of Advent the Church in Gaul simply used the Masses of Lent.
In Rome the celebration of Advent originated considerably later, during the sixth century.
...snip...
When, in the eighth century, the Frankish Church accepted the Roman liturgy, the nonpenitential Advent of Rome clashed with the penitential observance of the much longer Gallic Advent. After a few centuries of vacillation there emerged a final structure of Advent celebration which combined features of both traditions. Rome adopted the fast and penitential character from the Gallic observance, while the Roman tradition of a four weeks' Advent and Roman liturgical texts prevailed... This compromise was completed in the thirteenth century. From that time, the liturgical observance of Advent has remained practically unchanged. |
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Interesting history, isn't it!
I also wanted to share this with you which I absolutely love...
From Around the Year with the Trapp Family:
Quote:
The events that come to mind when we say "Christmas," "Easter," "Pentecost," are so tremendous that their commemoration cannot be celebrated in a single day each. Weeks are needed. First, weeks of preparation, of becoming attuned in body and soul, and then weeks of celebration. This goes back to an age when people still had time--time to live, time to enjoy. In our own day, we face the puzzling fact that the more time-saving gadgets we invent, the more new buttons to push in order to "save hours of work"--the less time we actually have. We have no more time to read books; we can only afford digests. We have no time to walk a quarter of a mile; we have to hop into a car. We have no time to make things by hand; we buy them ready made in the five-and-ten or in the supermarket. This atmosphere of "hurry up, let's go" does not provide the necessary leisure in which to anticipate and celebrate a feast. But as soon as people stop celebrating they really do not live any more--they are being lived, as it were.
....snip....
Only the Church throws light onto the gloomy prospects of modern man--Holy Mother Church--for she belongs, herself, to a realm that has its past and present in Time, but its future in the World Without End.
....snip....
These weeks before Christmas, known as the weeks of Advent, are meant to be spent in expectation and waiting. |
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I know this is a bit off your original subject, but I find this history so interesting I thought you might enjoy it if I shared it. I particularly love how Holy Mother Church sets a time aside to prepare her faithful for the great Feasts - Lent before Easter, and Advent before Christmas. Though Advent is a penitential time, the fasting and penitence is not so seriously observed as it is during Lent, it is simply placed there through the wisdom of Holy Mother Church to help us prepare our expectant hearts as we wait for the coming of the great Nativity of Our Little Lord.
This thought of Father Weiser's (taken from Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs, Advent) is helpful for me as I seek to set this tone in my own home:
Quote:
| By a spirit of humble penance and contrition we should prepare ourselves for a worthy and fruitful celebration of the great Feast of the Nativity. This penance is not as harsh as that of Lent - there is no prescribed fast - and the joyful note of the season helps to perform penitential exercises in a mood of happy spiritual toil, to "make ready the way of the Lord" (Matthew 3,3). |
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Hope this helps a bit with the idea of Advent as penitential, Books...and isn't just overwhelming!
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19, ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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sunnyviewmom
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Just want to add that at our parish, we have First Reconciliation on the Third Sunday of Advent in the evening. (This is open to all parishoners as well.) Our pastor is such a wonderful Spiritual Father and Confessor. This is a beautiful way to end this day, perhaps followed by a treat.
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Bookswithtea
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Jen, this is amazing. Thank you so much. It totally helps. And now that I have my own copy of Around the Year  (It came a few days ago...I can't even believe I have a copy!!!), I can look up those quotes myself and really enjoy it.
Thank you all for the help. I am really looking forward to heading to Michaels for some purple and pink bows to add to our Christmas lights!
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Blessings,
~Books
mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and due 9/10
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4Real Forums : Domestic Church
Topic: Gaudete Sunday question
