Advent Day 1 – Puzzles, Puzzles Everywhere!

Did all three. Love jigsaw puzzles and do 3 or 4 per day. 100 pieces usually. Thanks.

Love ‘The Look’! Thank you for the entertainment!

I’ve been thinking about this a good deal, trying to figure out what troubles me. It’s not that I’m unaware that so-called “Advent” calendars in every theme possible are available – the majority having nothing at all to do with Advent. It’s not that I’m unaware of the fact that most people have no idea what Advent is really about or how it is honored in many – though hardly all – Christian traditions, nor that, outside of these few churches, it has been secularized beyond all recognition.

It’s that Jane Austen, as a daughter of a family where their faith was actually practiced, would have honored the season with reverence and quiet hope, not as an excuse to have “fun”. Her extant prayers reveal her to have been quietly true to the Christian faith as taught by the Church of England in her time. Indeed, those prayers show her to have been concerned to live her faith both interiorly and exteriorly. Certainly she wasn’t ridiculously pious in the mode some of her clergy characters skewer so neatly, with such revealing wit. Her caricatures of the diverting whims and follies of many for whom the Church of England was merely cultural or a means of income hold the reality she knew and lived in stark relief.

The majority of authors in this group work hard to make certain that their stories and posts are true to the period. Most are quick to acknowledge that they don’t know everything and are pleased to learn more and improve, to deepen their writing. In that way, like Miss Austen, they offer their readers more than fun, faux-Regency fluff. Rather the majority of contributors to this lively and creative group of authors honor her by working hard to provide delightful stories and fascinating information which are grounded in history also contain real interest and lasting value. So, for example, the concept of an “Advent calendar” would have been unknown to Miss Austen as such a practice, as preparation for the observance of the birth of Christ, did not arrive in England from Germany until later in the 18th century. Advent itself would have been observed with increased time for quiet prayer and reflection, although without many of the practices added later in the century.

Certainly there are many who are unfamiliar with the life and times of Jane Austen and with her genuine faith. And perhaps all this series of posts is supposed to be merely modern fluff having little, if anything to do with Miss Austen, with the faith she lived quietly, or, indeed, with Advent. If that is, in fact, true, at least honor her by using a different term. Whether or not you are practicing Christians, she was. She deserves that much respect, even if only for the sake of historical accuracy.