Advent, in Latin “the coming,” was the time of mental preparation for trying to experience, emotionally, the birth of Jesus. In monasteries, it would have been a sober, thoughtful time. In secular life, it was still officially a fast, though each week, only three days had to be fasting.
When it began after Martinmas, it lasted six weeks, and that is how the Orthodox Church still counts Advent. At some point, perhaps during the Reformation (post-medieval) years, Advent was shortened to just four weeks, defined by the four Sundays before Christmas.
During a fast, all animal products were shunned. It wasn’t difficult for the poor to avoid meat, since they ate it rarely. But avoiding cheese, the main protein food of the poor, was hard. Even harder, in the northern regions where animal fat was the primary cooking oil, it was hard to cook at all—and hard to stay warm with a fat-free diet as the days got colder.
Eating butter or other animal fat was a sin, but only a sin to make up with penance. The priests knew people were struggling to get enough calories. As the medieval period went on, the church began allowing parishes to buy a “butter indulgence” for those weeks. By the 13th century, the Advent fast was less and less practiced in Western Europe.
In the Church, Advent was marked by a series of Bible readings that led up to Christmas. Some of these readings were dramatized with simple acting. In the next entries, I’ll look more at both liturgical drama and fast-time cooking.