What is "advent sunday"

Sunday \Sun"day\, n. [AS. sunnand[ae]g; sunne, gen. sunnan, the sun + d[ae]g day; akin to D. zondag, G. sonntag; -- so called because this day was anciently dedicated to the sun, or to its worship. See Sun, and Day.] The first day of the week, -- consecrated among Christians to rest from secular employments, and to religious worship; the Christian Sabbath; the Lord's Day.

Advent Sunday, Low Sunday, Passion Sunday, etc. See under Advent, Low, etc.

Syn: See Sabbath.

Advent \Ad`vent\, n. [L. adventus, fr. advenire, adventum: cf. F. avent. See Advene.]

1. (Eccl.) The period including the four Sundays before Christmas.

   Advent Sunday (Eccl.), the first Sunday in the season of Advent, being always the nearest Sunday to the feast of St. Andrew (Now. 30).
   --Shipley.

2. The first or the expected second coming of Christ.

3. Coming; any important arrival; approach.

   Death's dreadful advent.
   --Young.

   Expecting still his advent home.
   --Tennyson.

Advent Sunday is, for the Western Christian churches that use the term, the first day of the liturgical year and the start of the season of Advent. In Lutheran, Anglican, and Methodist churches the celebrant wears violet-coloured or blue vestments on this day, and the first violet or blue Advent candle is lit at Mass. In the Church of Sweden, however, the Liturgical colour is white: the motivation is that the day is a joyful feast (the colour is changed to blue, the traditional colour for Advent in Scandinavia, or—if the church does not possess blue vestments—violet after 6 p.m.). and are always read in the service, and the symbolism of the day is that Christ enters the church.

The Catholic Church does not use the term "Advent Sunday" of any one Sunday alone. With regard to the Roman Rite, it states that "Advent begins with First Vespers (Evening Prayer I) of the Sunday that falls on or closest to 30 November and it ends before First Vespers (Evening Prayer I) of Christmas", and adds: "The Sundays of this time of year are named the First, Second, Third, and Fourth Sundays of Advent." It also does not allow the use of blue vestments as the liturgical colour of the season. In the Ambrosian Rite and the Mozarabic Rite, the First Sunday in Advent comes two weeks earlier than in the Roman, being on the Sunday after St. Martin's Day (11 November), six weeks before Christmas.

Advent Sunday is the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day. This is equivalent to the Sunday nearest to St. Andrew's Day, 30 November, and the Sunday following the Feast of Christ the King. It can fall on any date between 27 November and 3 December. When Christmas Day is a Monday, Advent Sunday will fall on its latest possible date. Note that it is also possible to compute the date of Advent Sunday by adding three days to the date of the last Thursday of November; it can also be computed as the Sunday before the first Thursday of December.

Advent Sunday falls on the following dates: