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Advent Words

The meaning of Advent

by Janice Ross

Suitable for Key Stage 2

Aims

To consider the meaning of Advent candles.

Preparation and materials

  • Have available the YouTube video ‘What is Advent?’ and the means to show it during the assembly. It is 2.28 minutes long and is available at: https://youtu.be/RfN7ucvUx4s
  • You will also need the PowerPoint slides that accompany this assembly (Advent Words) and the means to display them.

Assembly

  1. Ask the children what they can see around them at the moment - both in school and outside it - that points towards the current season.

    Ask the children, ‘What is this season called?’

    Listen to a range of responses.

    If necessary, lead the children towards the responses of Advent and Christmas.

  2. Ask the children, ‘What are the clues that Christmas isn’t far away?’

    Listen to a range of responses.

    Accept suggestions such as decorations, shop displays, lights, parties, Christmas songs and cards.

  3. Identify that the word ‘Advent’ means looking towards or moving towards Christmas. The season of Advent always starts four Sundays before Christmas Day and ends on Christmas Eve. This year, Advent starts on Sunday 1 December.

    Christians think of Advent as a time when they are waiting for Christmas and the celebration of Jesus’ birth.

  4. Ask the children if they have decided what they would like for Christmas this year.

    Listen to a range of responses.

    Point out that all of their answers are common nouns: real things, like objects or possessions. Go through their suggestions to confirm this.

  5. Explain that for Christians, and especially in churches, Advent is a special time of waiting, when we prepare our hearts for Christmas and consider the deeper things that we all need as human beings. These are things that everyone needs to live happily, such as hope, peace, joy and love.

  6. During Advent, in many churches, a candle is lit each week. Each time, the candle represents one of these words, and people are asked to reflect upon what that word means. It is a good way of stilling our hearts and helping us to consider what really matters.

  7. Hope, peace, joy and love are all abstract nouns, which means that they refer to something non-physical. You can’t see, hear, smell, touch or taste them.

  8. Show the YouTube video ‘What is Advent?’ (2.28 minutes long).

  9. Explain that you are going to show the children some pictures of situations happening in the world today. Ask the children to consider which of these express the words hope, peace, joy and love.

    Show Slides 1-4, opening up a conversation about what the pictures show.

    - Slide 1 shows a homeless person.
    - Slide 2 shows a child trying to collect water during a drought.
    - Slide 3 shows soldiers in a conflict zone.
    - Slide 4 shows some refugees in a boat.

  10. Show Slide 5.

    Ask the children, ‘Which of the four things we mentioned - hope, peace, joy and love - might the people in these pictures wish for this Christmas?’

    Identify that many in the world today are in need.

Time for reflection

Show Slide 6.

The fifth candle - the one in the middle - is lit on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. It represents Jesus, who Christians believe came to be the Saviour of the world. They believe that he came to bring hope, peace, joy and love.

Show Slide 7.

The world needs these things as much today as it did when Jesus was born over two thousand years ago.

Show Slide 8.

Ask the children to think back to the start of the assembly, and what they said they’d like for Christmas. Ask them why they chose it.

Encourage them to think about the words hope, peace, joy and love. How could they be part of bringing hope, peace, joy and love into the lives of others this Christmas?

Pause to allow time for thought.

Prayer
Dear God,
The world today needs hope, peace, joy and love as much now as it did when Jesus was born.
Sometimes, our world makes us sad, frightened or unhappy.
Please help us to remember that you came to earth because you loved us.
Please help us to spread hope, peace, joy and love to those around us.
Amen.

Song/music

Any appropriate Christmas music.

Publication date: December 2024   (Vol.26 No.12)    Published by SPCK, London, UK.
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