Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 61
Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 61, in Weimar for the first Sunday in Advent, the Sunday which begins the liturgical year, and first performed it on 2 December 1714.
The Schlosskirche in Weimar
Erdmann Neumeister, the librettist
John Eliot Gardiner, 2007
Advent is a season observed in most Christian denominations as a time of expectant waiting and preparation for both the celebration of the Nativity of Christ at Christmas and the return of Christ at the Second Coming. Advent is the beginning of the liturgical year in Western Christianity. The name was adopted from Latin adventus "coming; arrival", translating Greek parousia from the New Testament, originally referring to the Second Coming.
Lighting the candles of an Advent wreath in a church service
A representation of Saint Perpetuus
Rorate Mass in Prague Cathedral, Czech Republic
Celebration of a Advent vespers. Cope and antependium are violet, the liturgical colour of Advent in the Roman Rite.