It really is a thing – Advent Eve. Rather, it’s the night before the first Advent of Christmas 2021.
Full confession, I’m not religious. I did find my baptism certificate the other day, but that’s as close as I get.
So the whole Advent “thing” is really just extended Christmas for me.
It’s also something that has stuck from Greenland.
December is incredibly dark in northern Greenland. In Uummannaq we had an hour or so of grey twilight. In Qaanaaq we had nothing. If there was no snow or ice on the ground to reflect the moonlight, we had less than nothing. One Christmas it rained, and the snow melted, resulting in super dark.
Not pleasant.
What is pleasant in Greenland over Christmas is the way every house – every house – has a coloured paper star with a light bulb hanging in the window. There are more lights, candles, decorations of all kinds all over the villages and settlements.
In the towns too, but I spent most of my winters in the more remote parts of Greenland.
Greenlanders celebrate Christmas with light to push back the dark. And then, at Christmas, there’s even more cause for celebration as we know the light is on its way back. It’ll take some time, but just knowing it’s coming is a huge boost to winter morale.
So, I hope you’ll celebrate with me this Advent Eve because tomorrow I’ll post the first of Luui’s Advent stories.
I’ll be back tomorrow with a link for the first part of Yule at Aurora Station.
Chris
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