A New Academic Year: Advent in American Christianity

Each year, at various times of year, comes with new beginnings and learning new things. In August, I have been focusing on the "learning" aspect as well as the new academic year upcoming. Advent (the 4 weeks before Christmas) doesn't quite seem to fit from a calendar perspective. However, it does relate to both beginning something (new) and learning (new) things. 

Happy New Year!

Growing up, I heard this at several times and in several places. One was in church, generally at Pentecost (the "birthday" of the Christian church). Another was on campus during opening service right before the first day of fall-semester classes in late August. A third was, of course, in my family's living room at 12:01 on New Year's Eve/Day. One place where I haven't heard it is at the start of Advent.

What are your reactions when someone wishes you a happy new year at any of these times?

Advent’s ETA

The church season of Advent occurs during the four weeks immediately preceding Christmas Day, and starts on the Sunday closest to the Feast of St. Andrew. This year, the first Sunday of Advent is December 3, which is (coincidentally) my baptismal birthday, when I became a Christian at a few months old. Each Sunday in Advent has a theme: hope, peace, joy (Latin Gaudete), and love (Latin Laetare).

Academic Year ETA

The start of the academic year, at least in most of the Western hemisphere, is sometime in August. It varies depending on the school system, level of education (grade school versus high school versus college), and in homeschoolers' cases the parents' decision about what works best for the family. For me, the year starts on the 27th of this month, when faculty and students attend the opening service on campus.

Variation in Advent History and Celebration 

Here is where I discovered some new-to-me information and appreciated my own (Lutheran) heritage at a deeper level. Let's take a brief trip through the history of Advent celebration and observance. I may update this post with elements from the Eastern Church later, but now that would make the post of an unmanageable length.

Early Church

The Christian church started (naturally) with Jesus and His disciples on earth, i.e., around AD 33-36 after His incarnation, death, and bodily resurrection. The earliest documentation of a liturgical year that I could find is from around the same time, in Paul's writings (referencing celebration of days and seasons and years adapted or carried over from Judaism). Constantine, around the year 312, introduced more familiar seasons such as Lent into the calendar.

Western Church

The Western Church is operationally defined as more aligned with Augustine (sprouting Roman Catholic and Reformed traditions) than with the Orthodox traditions. Within this region and period and distributed body of believers, some denominations and traditions have been more formally observant of distinctive church seasons than others. Over time, these more observant traditions have included Lutheran, Orthodox, Episcopal, and Roman Catholic. 

In the Lutheran church, which began a bit after 1519, Advent observance blended elements from Roman Catholicism from which it sprang, and distinctive German cultural elements. Roman Catholic elements that were retained, at least in the Lutheran churches I grew up in and attended, were

• Deliberate meditation on elements of Advent to prepare mind and spirit
• Simplified family devotions to avoid becoming overwhelmed
• Advent wreath with candles
• Use of the 7 "O" antiphons from "O Come, O Come, Immanuel"
• Commemorating St. Nicholas (December 6)

German distinctives, in my experience, associated with Advent included

• Chocolate-filled Advent calendars
• An actual wreath material for the Advent candles
• An annual box of Stollen and Lebkuchen
• Congregational singing of Stille Nacht on Christmas Eve

One thing I learned a few weeks ago, in conversation with Husband, is that the Evangelical tradition has not historically celebrated all the seasons of the church year, especially Advent. In recent years, there is a discovery (2021 article) among members of those churches of what has long been there, resulting in new-to-them knowledge and observances. The Evangelical tradition has typically been non-liturgical--i.e., choosing to not use a set, recurring pattern of early-historic elements within each Sunday's service and across the entire year.

However, more are starting to realize that Advent is typically not celebrated by the wider world; Christmas shopping (consumerism) tends to take over instead of the restful, mindful pause. So, to be different or distinctively Christian, many are seeing that unique practices are helpful. Indeed, we appreciate Christmas more when we take Advent practices seriously.

Based on the etymology of "Advent" (the Latin term adventus, literally meaning "coming" and referring to the first coming of Christ), Evangelicals are incorporating certain elements at a congregational level. Advent practices being gradually appropriated by members of the Evangelical tradition include weekly candle lighting, specific hymns and songs for the season, and using set scriptural readings (plus more cultural practices of gradually building up a creche, opening a window in an Advent calendar, etc.). 

I found the article's list of Advent hymns and songs an interesting mix:

• O Come, O Come, Immanuel (words written 1710)
• Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus (words written early 1700s by Charles Wesley)
• God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen (words written in early 1700s)
• Breath of Heaven (words written 1992 by Amy Grant)
• Light of the World (words written 2013 by Lauren Daigle)

Variations in Academic Year History and Celebration

In my research for this post, I focused on the introduction of the Prussian model of education as a pivot point for school and academic-year orientation, primarily in the Western hemisphere. However, that turned out to be contemporaneous (or nearly so) with the other pivot in terms of the academic calendar generally used in the United States. Hopefully, I may update the post eventually with more international historical tidbits. Here are my sources.

Before

In colonial America, children's education was mandatory; however, one standard academic calendar was not in place. Although it's generally said that summer vacation was introduced due to need for farm-dwelling children to help their parents out during that season, at this time most rural schools operated year-round--city-dwelling children attended year-round, and rural-dwelling children attended in summer and winter ("slow" times for agriculture). Before the Civil War, some cities' school years were 260 days long.

Many elements of the current public school model actually preceded the Prussian model, which occurred around the time of the Industrial Revolution. That said, competing models of education have always existed.

Several sources describe the Prussian model of education as follows:

• Goal of reducing independent thought to enhance military victory
• Base level: Volksschulen or "common-folk schools" with reduced literacy (92-94% of children)
• Next level: Realschulen or "professional schools" with focus on building managerial skills (5-7% of children)
• Top level: Akademiensschulen or "academic schools" with focus on critical thinking and wide/deep reading (< 1% of children)

That said, there is some discrepancy of whether the "pivot" came around Horace Mann's introduction of the (centralized) Prussian model, or around the Industrial Revolution, or something else. Additionally, different camps have differing opinions on what "industrialization" means or connotes. The term "industry" is defined as the opposite of "idleness." Indeed, one benefit of the "monitorial" model at the time was that each student could work diligently at his or her own pace.

After

Whatever changes happened, now the typical academic year in the United States has these features:

• Decentralized control, by local governments
• No significant change to the model of education, although technology has been introduced to automate some previously-human-performed tasks in the educational process
• Summers off due to the "urban heat island effect" (city-dwellers fleeing in the summer before air conditioning was invented) and inaccurate science around the 1800s-1900s claiming that more cognitive rest is needed than is actually necessary

As someone who was homeschooled throughout pretty much the entire year, I found the online discussion of "standard" versus "balanced" academic calendars interesting.

What does a "standard" calendar (96% of public schools) look like?

• 180 days long
• Long summer break and minimal breaks during semesters
• Loss of cognitive skills over summer due to disuse
• Allowance for students' summer jobs, sports participation, longer traveling vacations, potentially parental ability to arrange childcare during work

What does a "balanced" calendar (4% of public schools) look like?

• 180 days long
• Shortened (5-6 or 10-12 week) summer break, week-long breaks within semesters or trimesters
• More equal semester lengths
• Less burnout for students and teachers
• Roughly equivalent cognitive skill loss
• Potentially more benefit for low-income students receiving school lunches
• Increased air conditioning costs for school buildings

What does your school year look like? How about your liturgical year?