The Christmas tree is up and lit at Christ Lutheran Church in Marietta, Ga., and Rusty Edwards just can't wait to sing a few lines of O Little Town of Bethlehem, his favorite Christmas song.
But the liturgical calendar, which lays out the songs and Scriptures for each Sunday of the church year, doesn't include those beloved Christmas carols and hymns until Dec. 25. That's because, despite what Macy's and Wal-Mart might say, Christmas doesn't start until Dec. 25, and in many churches runs past New Year's Day.
So during the four Sundays of Advent, Edwards' church will sing Advent hymns, not Christmas ones. It's an area of church music that many musicians say is overlooked and underdeveloped, although a new burst of Advent hymn-writing is filling the gap.
In Catholic and many mainline Protestant congregations, the church year is partitioned into different seasons. Unlike a secular calendar, the liturgical church year starts on the first Sunday of Advent, which is four weeks before Christmas. The “season” of Christmas doesn't actually start until Dec. 25, and usually lasts for 12 days until the Feast of the Epiphany, on Jan. 6.
Advent has its own songs and traditions-including lighting the four candles of the Advent wreath-and musicians say it would be premature to sing Christmas songs about the birth of Christ before he's actually born.
So what's wrong with a little Advent music? To start, there's not much of it-at least much that is as familiar as Christmas carols. The perennial favorite is O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. Others include Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus and Comfort, Comfort Now My People.
Peter Latona, director of music at Washington's Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, the type of Advent music that gives him “goosebumps” should also look with hope to the end of time.
“That's what all the good Advent texts have in them-the second coming and the role of Jesus as savior, not just the baby in the crib,” he said.
Many evangelical and non-denominational churches, meanwhile, don't follow a liturgical calendar. That means they can usher in Christmas music as soon as Thanksgiving has come and gone.
Religion News Service