THE ADVENT SPIRAL
Author's Note - As today is the first official day of the advent season for this year 2021, I felt it appropriate to write something to celebrate the occasion. My suggested recommendation for you, dear readers, is to read the story around 4 o clock (respective to time zones) in the afternoon as it is around then the story takes place on this very day.
Happy Advent to you all!
“The experience of the Advent spiral reflects the human experience at this time of the year; entering a time of darkness, of shorter days and longer nights and going forward with hope to welcome the light of the sun after the winter solstice.”
Alicia’s first advent spiral was a magical event and greatly symbolic to her mind when she later came back to look at the ethereal ritual she enjoyed for so many years of her childhood.
Only attending (under mild protest) an authentic performance of Mozart’s The Magic Flute with her opera loving husband had come anywhere close to this experience and yet it occurred to her now there was a obvious symbiosis between the two sacred events. It had taken many years of reflection to understand why.
She was naturally apprehensive to begin with, as most children of five years of age are when it comes to new, uncertain experiences.
And her caution was not entirely unwarranted.
To begin with, it was a dark winter’s afternoon on the 1st of December, 1991, and as she was driven to an undisclosed location by her mother, she felt justifiably unhappy about leaving the comfort of their home where she had been happily immersed in play activities with her numerous toys and most impressive cushion fortress where she had hidden her little brother Tom for most of the day.
Tom, 3 years old at the time was also new to this festive initiation, but was fast asleep in his car seat so remained oblivious at this juncture as to what awaited both him and his big sister.
As the car pulled into a relatively deserted parking lot, Alicia decided now was the time to resist this mysterious occasion, which had been coordinated without her authority.
“I don’t want to go to whatever this is.”
“You don’t know what is is,” replied her Mother, enjoying Alicia’s cute attempt at rebellion.
“Well, all I know is, we were warm and now we’re cold,” said Alicia with a fine pragmatic line in logic.
“And we’ll be warm again soon. But not if we stay in the car with the engine turned off.”
“Keep the engine turned on then!” suggested Alicia, with great assuredness. “Besides, I’d rather be cold then than go to whatever this stupid thing is called.”
“Well I can’t very well leave you here all by yourself.”
“Why not?” asserted Alicia defiantly.
“Because you might get stolen. A thief might try and break into the car and not realise you’re sitting in the back at the same time.”
“I wouldn’t mind. Would be better than going to the stupid thing you’re taking us to.”
Alicia’s Mother tried a different tack.
“Let me ask you a question.”
“NO!”
“Just one?”
Alicia pretended not to be listening to her mother anymore.
“If? I and I say if knowing how much you don’t want to do this. But if you were to enjoy this experience, would you admit it?”
“I wouldn’t!”
“Well, why don’t we play a game. We’ll go along to this thing, knowing how much you intend to hate it and if by some miracle you enjoy it, you absolutely have to keep pretending you hate it. Does that sound like a deal?”
There was a considerable silence, as Alicia knew her Mother was being crafty but couldn’t quite articulate or pinpoint exactly how or why she was being so.
“Alright”
After finally exiting the vehicle, the three of them followed a path of lanterns that led to an intriguing looking building of unconventional geometric shapes a short way off in the distance. It was unlike anything Alicia had seen in her young life thus far.
Alicia could make out the shadowy shapes of adults and children huddled outside the entrance to what looked like a church of sorts.
“Not people!” she said with incredulity.
“What’s wrong with people?”
“There’s too many of them.”
“They’ll all be spaced out inside the hall once we’re all in.”
This hall idea conjured up an anxious feeling inside of Alicia that made her recall the previous summer when she attended her very first circus. All of that hot July afternoon she'd hated the prospect of possibly being targeted by one of the zany looking circus characters and forced to leave her seat which she became increasingly attached to as the event wore on.
Upon reaching the small crowd assembled outside the church like building, Alicia hid behind her mother’s coat as she surveyed the crowd with suspicion.
But even though she was feeling shy, there was conversely a sense of excitement for her which she would never admit to her mummy.
A few minutes before 4, the doors opened and a friendly voice greeted the crowd with a kind, soft voice. Alicia got tip-toes to get a better look at whom the voice belonged to.
“If you come into the waiting area, you can hang up your coats on the pegs. It tends to get a little warm in the main hall once proceedings get going.”
Alicia’s mother squeezed her hand as they headed slowly into the building.
There was an even greater sense of excitement as coats were hung up and the hushed excitement combined with curiosity as to what came next.
“This isn’t going to be like the circus again?”
“Not quite,” though she knew it wasn’t entirely different but didn’t want to scare her young daughter away.
Finally, after all the uncertainty, they entered the spacious, yet intimate, hall which was dark and peaceful.
It had as its visual centrepiece a large candle surrounded by a spiral of evergreen boughs that took up a significant amount of space in the room but allowed for a clear walkway passage to the flame.
“Where’s everyone going to sit?”
“We sit all around the spiral; don’t you see there’s some chairs that fold down at the sides of the room and some raised carpeted steps at the back there by the altar?”
Alicia also noticed some of the other children had taken to sitting on the floor cross legged as if attending school assembly.
Alicia recognised a couple of familiar faces from her kindergarten and felt far more at ease knowing she wasn’t alone amongst her peers here in this strange but calming place.
And then slowly the sound of music quietened the hall as the gentle sound of harps filled the room.
Then three women dressed as angels appeared and began to sing, prompting the adults to follow their lead.
“People look East. The time is near
Of the crowning of the year
Take your house fair as you are able.
Trim the hearth, set the table.
People look East, and sing today:
Love the guest is on the way.”
There was something ancient, yet familiar, about these words and this lilting melody and without any great thought about it, Alicia knew she was comfortable here and settled in herself. Her impatience had now dissolved and she felt immersed in the present moment.
After the first carol was sung, it was followed by another, O Come O Come Emmanuel, which felt even more familiar to Alicia and yet she knew not how or why.
After the second carol one of the three angels looked to the children sat cross legged on the floor and held a hand out in their general direction as way of invitation.
One emboldened boy happily took the angel’s hand as he was presented with a single apple with a small candle lodged through its centre. Looking somewhat confused as to what to do with this unusual gift, he was guided by the angel around the spiral route surrounded by the evergreen boughs and gently gestured at how to light his apple from the large centre candle. As he successfully lit his candle from the main flame within the hall, the angel whispered to him that he could place his apple anywhere he liked around the giant wreath spiral. He did so carefully and so began in earnest the ritual ceremony.
It was at this point, Alicia looked to her mother and whispered worriedly, “This is like the circus!”
“It’s not. Just relax. You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to.”
Alicia wasn’t sure she truly believed her, but she continued to watch with fascination as each of the other children in the hall took their turn to light their apples.
It occurred to Alicia that no-one child had the same approach to walking around the spiral to the candle. Some children rushed, others took their time and the occasional poor soul would get confused about what to do and have to start all over at the beginning again.
But as each apple was lit and placed in its unique position in and around the wreath boughs, the room becoming ever brighter and with the ethereal music, Alicia found herself becoming almost hypnotised by the magic of this ceremony.
So much so that when it came to her turn and was presented with her own apple by one of the angels, she almost forget she had been nervous about it at all.
She still felt she had been tricked into complying by her mother but stood firm on her own two feet, accepting the moment with courage and slowly but surely making her way round the spiral.
At one brief moment she caught sight of her mother and her brother Tom watching her contentedly and she felt important undertaking this symbolic walk to the light. Perhaps she didn’t understand why yet, but she felt it, so much so it would resonate far beyond this moment, years later into her adult life.
As she faced the large candle and lowered her candle apple toward it, Alicia felt something she would later understand as the word eternal.
Having placed her apple securely, she returned to her designated spot on the carpeted steps by the altar at the back of the hall.
The feeling of accomplishment made her feel extremely happy and the knowledge that she could now watch the last remaining few boys and girls undertake the advent journey gave her a deep sense of satisfaction.
“Remember; even if you’re enjoying the moment, you must pretend to hate it.”
Alicia’s mother whispered in her ear, to which the young girl shook her head and smiled.
Her resistance had finally been broken.
As the ceremony wound to a close, the penultimate carol was sung as the parents and children slowly left the room.
The angel Gabriel from heaven came
His wings as drifted snow
His eyes as flame
"All hail" said he "thou lowly maiden Mary
Most highly favored lady, " Gloria, Gloria
Alicia was loathe to leave the hall suddenly, so much had she enjoyed the experience. Concern about the welfare of her apple also had her worried momentarily.
But those fears were soon allayed ten minutes later as the buttoned up children were presented with trays of becandled apples (no longer alight) in the large reception room opposite to the hall.
“This isn’t my apple,” said Alicia somewhat disappointed.
“No-one necessarily gets the same apple. But perhaps that’s the point.”
Alicia had no idea what her mother meant, but time would make sense of it to her.
A final unaccompanied chorus of O Little Town Of Bethlehem by the priest, angels and parents left everyone with spirits alight.
Everyone could now face the dark winter’s cold with the inner light the ceremony had lit within all of their hearts substantially fired up.
Returning to the car, Alicia knew what was coming.
“Well, did you enjoy that?”
With a beaming smile she replied simply.
“No. I hated it.”
Now, decades later, Alicia was a mother herself and she smiled at the little girl frowning in her rear view mirror as she drove her daughter Alexandra to her very first Advent Spiral.
As she saw in her a reflection of her younger self she was reminded of the lyrics of one of her favourite Joni Mitchell songs for some reason.
“And the seasons, they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time
We can't return, we can only look
Behind, from where we came
And go round and round and round, in the circle game”