Jäneda
Jäneda is a small village in northern Estonia. It is a part of Tapa municipality. Jäneda hill fort was a hill fort used from the 10th to the 12th century, it consisted by a rampart reaching 3 metres, surrounding a triangular courtyard. There were two towers at the entrance at the southern end and another tower at the northern end; the fort was surrounded by a moat. Jäneda manor was founded as an estate before 1510; the estate has belonged to several different aristocratic families. The present building was built 1913-1915 in an eclectic Art Nouveau style with strong neo-Gothic influences. In 1922, the interiors were rebuilt after designs by architect Anton Lembit Soans. Estonian composer Urmas Sisask has furnished a planetarium at the top of the tower. In the early 1900s the manor was owned by Countess Baroness, Moura Budberg, called the "Mata Hari of Russia" and, close to Sir R. H. Bruce Lockhart, Russian writer Maxim Gorky and H. G. Wells; the manor is now converted to a conference center. Ugri.info seminar on Finno-Ugric languages and infosystems was held at the manor on either 3 December 2004 or March 12, 2004.
List of palaces and manor houses in Estonia Official website Jäneda Manor Jäneda Stable Jäneda Manor at Estonian Manors Portal
Russia
Russia the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country in Eastern Europe and North Asia. At 17,125,200 square kilometres, Russia is by far or by a considerable margin the largest country in the world by area, covering more than one-eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area, the ninth most populous, with about 146.77 million people as of 2019, including Crimea. About 77 % of the population live in the European part of the country. Russia's capital, Moscow, is one of the largest cities in the world and the second largest city in Europe. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a wide range of environments and landforms. From northwest to southeast, Russia shares land borders with Norway, Estonia, Latvia and Poland, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, China and North Korea, it shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk and the U. S. state of Alaska across the Bering Strait. However, Russia recognises two more countries that border it, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, both of which are internationally recognized as parts of Georgia.
The East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, the medieval state of Rus arose in the 9th century. In 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus' disintegrated into a number of smaller states; the Grand Duchy of Moscow reunified the surrounding Russian principalities and achieved independence from the Golden Horde. By the 18th century, the nation had expanded through conquest and exploration to become the Russian Empire, the third largest empire in history, stretching from Poland on the west to Alaska on the east. Following the Russian Revolution, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic became the largest and leading constituent of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the world's first constitutionally socialist state; the Soviet Union played a decisive role in the Allied victory in World War II, emerged as a recognized superpower and rival to the United States during the Cold War.
The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the world's first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the world's second largest economy, largest standing military in the world and the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, twelve independent republics emerged from the USSR: Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and the Baltic states regained independence: Estonia, Lithuania, it is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic. Russia's economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2018. Russia's extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the leading producers of oil and natural gas globally; the country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction.
Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. It is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and an active global partner of ASEAN, as well as a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the G20, the Council of Europe, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the World Trade Organization, as well as being the leading member of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Collective Security Treaty Organization and one of the five members of the Eurasian Economic Union, along with Armenia, Belarus and Kyrgyzstan; the name Russia is derived from Rus', a medieval state populated by the East Slavs. However, this proper name became more prominent in the history, the country was called by its inhabitants "Русская Земля", which can be translated as "Russian Land" or "Land of Rus'". In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus' by modern historiography.
The name Rus itself comes from the early medieval Rus' people, Swedish merchants and warriors who relocated from across the Baltic Sea and founded a state centered on Novgorod that became Kievan Rus. An old Latin version of the name Rus' was Ruthenia applied to the western and southern regions of Rus' that were adjacent to Catholic Europe; the current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Rus', Ρωσσία Rossía—spelled Ρωσία in Modern Greek. The standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are commonly
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of British Armed Forces. As of 2018, the British Army comprises just over 81,500 trained regular personnel and just over 27,000 trained reserve personnel; the modern British Army traces back to 1707, with an antecedent in the English Army, created during the Restoration in 1660. The term British Army was adopted in 1707 after the Acts of Union between Scotland. Although all members of the British Army are expected to swear allegiance to Elizabeth II as their commander-in-chief, the Bill of Rights of 1689 requires parliamentary consent for the Crown to maintain a peacetime standing army. Therefore, Parliament approves the army by passing an Armed Forces Act at least once every five years; the army is commanded by the Chief of the General Staff. The British Army has seen action in major wars between the world's great powers, including the Seven Years' War, the Napoleonic Wars, the Crimean War and the First and Second World Wars.
Britain's victories in these decisive wars allowed it to influence world events and establish itself as one of the world's leading military and economic powers. Since the end of the Cold War, the British Army has been deployed to a number of conflict zones as part of an expeditionary force, a coalition force or part of a United Nations peacekeeping operation; until the English Civil War, England never had a standing army with professional officers and careerist corporals and sergeants. It relied on militia organized by local officials, or private forces mobilized by the nobility, or on hired mercenaries from Europe. From the Middle Ages until the English Civil War, when a foreign expeditionary force was needed, such as the one that Henry V of England took to France and that fought at the Battle of Agincourt, the army, a professional one, was raised for the duration of the expedition. During the English Civil War, the members of the Long Parliament realised that the use of county militia organised into regional associations commanded by local members of parliament, while more than able to hold their own in the regions which Parliamentarians controlled, were unlikely to win the war.
So Parliament initiated two actions. The Self-denying Ordinance, with the notable exception of Oliver Cromwell, forbade members of parliament from serving as officers in the Parliamentary armies; this created a distinction between the civilians in Parliament, who tended to be Presbyterian and conciliatory to the Royalists in nature, a corps of professional officers, who tended to Independent politics, to whom they reported. The second action was legislation for the creation of a Parliamentary-funded army, commanded by Lord General Thomas Fairfax, which became known as the New Model Army. While this proved to be a war winning formula, the New Model Army, being organized and politically active, went on to dominate the politics of the Interregnum and by 1660 was disliked; the New Model Army was paid off and disbanded at the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660. For many decades the excesses of the New Model Army under the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell was a horror story and the Whig element recoiled from allowing a standing army.
The militia acts of 1661 and 1662 prevented local authorities from calling up militia and oppressing their own local opponents. Calling up the militia was possible only if the king and local elites agreed to do so. Charles II and his Cavalier supporters favoured a new army under royal control; the first English Army regiments, including elements of the disbanded New Model Army, were formed between November 1660 and January 1661 and became a standing military force for Britain. The Royal Scots and Irish Armies were financed by the parliaments of Ireland. Parliamentary control was established by the Bill of Rights 1689 and Claim of Right Act 1689, although the monarch continued to influence aspects of army administration until at least the end of the nineteenth century. After the Restoration Charles II pulled together four regiments of infantry and cavalry, calling them his guards, at a cost of £122,000 from his general budget; this became the foundation of the permanent English Army. By 1685 it had grown to 7,500 soldiers in marching regiments, 1,400 men permanently stationed in garrisons.
A rebellion in 1685 allowed James II to raise the forces to 20,000 men. There were 37,000 in 1678. After William and Mary's accession to the throne England involved itself in the War of the Grand Alliance to prevent a French invasion restoring James II. In 1689, William III expanded the army to 74,000, to 94,000 in 1694. Parliament was nervous, reduced the cadre to 7000 in 1697. Scotland and Ireland had theoretically separate military establishments, but they were unofficially merged with the English force. By the time of the 1707 Acts of Union, many regiments of the English and Scottish armies were combined under one operational command and stationed in the Netherlands for the War of the Spanish Succession. Although all the regiments were now part of the new British military establishment, they remained under the old operational-command structure and retained much of the institutional ethos and traditions of the standing armies created shortly after the restoration of the monarchy 47 years earlier.
The order of seniority of the most-senior British Army line regiments is based on that of the English army
John the Apostle
John the Apostle was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament, which refers to him as Ἰωάννης. Listed as the youngest apostle, he was the son of Zebedee and Salome or Joanna, his brother was James, another of the Twelve Apostles. The Church Fathers identify him as John the Evangelist, John of Patmos, John the Elder and the Beloved Disciple, testify that he outlived the remaining apostles and that he was the only one to die of natural causes; the traditions of most Christian denominations have held that John the Apostle is the author of several books of the New Testament. John the Apostle was the younger brother of James, son of Zebedee. According to Church tradition, their mother was Salome, he was first a disciple of John the Baptist. John is traditionally believed to be one of two disciples, as recounted in John 1: 35-39, hearing the Baptist point out Jesus as the "Lamb of God", followed Jesus and spent the day with him. Zebedee and his sons fished in the Sea of Galilee.
Jesus called Peter and these two sons of Zebedee to follow him. James and John are listed among the Twelve Apostles. Jesus referred to the pair as "Boanerges". A gospel story relates how the brothers wanted to call down heavenly fire on an unhospitable Samaritan town, but Jesus rebuked them. John lived for more than half a century following the martyrdom of James, the first Apostle to die a martyr's death. Peter and John were the only witnesses of the raising of Daughter of Jairus. All three witnessed the Transfiguration, these same three witnessed the Agony in Gethsemane more than the other Apostles did. John was the disciple who reported to Jesus that they had'forbidden' a non-disciple from casting out demons in Jesus' name, prompting Jesus to state that'he, not against us is on our side'. Jesus sent only Peter into the city to make the preparation for the final Passover meal. At the meal itself, the "disciple whom Jesus loved" sat next to Jesus, it was customary to lie along upon couches at meals, this disciple leaned on Jesus.
Tradition identifies this disciple as Saint John. After the arrest of Jesus and the "other disciple", John followed him into the palace of the high-priest. John alone among the Apostles remained near Jesus at the foot of the cross on Calvary alongside myrrhbearers and numerous other women. After Jesus' Ascension and the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, together with Peter, took a prominent part in the founding and guidance of the church, he was with Peter at the healing of the lame man at Solomon's Porch in the Temple and he was thrown into prison with Peter. He went with Peter to visit the newly converted believers in Samaria. While he remained in Judea and the surrounding area, the other disciples returned to Jerusalem for the Apostolic Council. Paul, in opposing his enemies in Galatia, recalls that John explicitly, along with Peter and James the Just, were referred to as "pillars of the church" and refers to the recognition that his Apostolic preaching of a gospel free from Jewish Law received from these three, the most prominent men of the messianic community at Jerusalem.
The phrase the disciple whom Jesus loved or, in John 20:2, the Beloved Disciple is used five times in the Gospel of John, but in no other New Testament accounts of Jesus. John 21:24 claims; the disciple whom Jesus loved is referred to six times in John's gospel: It is this disciple who, while reclining beside Jesus at the Last Supper, asks Jesus, after being requested by Peter to do so, who it is that will betray him. At the crucifixion, Jesus tells his mother, "Woman, here is your son", to the Beloved Disciple he says, "Here is your mother." When Mary Magdalene discovers the empty tomb, she runs to tell the Beloved Peter. The two men rush to the empty tomb and the Beloved Disciple is the first to reach the empty tomb. However, Peter is the first to enter. In John 21, the last chapter of the Gospel of John, the Beloved Disciple is one of seven fishermen involved in the miraculous catch of 153 fish. In the book's final chapter, after Jesus hints to Peter how Peter will die, Peter sees the Beloved Disciple following them and asks, "What about him?"
Jesus answers, "If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!" Again in the gospel's last chapter, it states that the book itself is based on the written testimony of the disciple whom Jesus loved. None of the other Gospels has anyone in the parallel scenes that could be directly understood as the Beloved Disciple. For example, in Luke 24:12, Peter alone runs to the tomb. Mark and Luke do not mention any one of the twelve disciples having witnessed the crucifixion. There are two references to an unnamed "other disciple" in John 1:35-40 and John 18:15-16, which may be to the same person based on the wording in John 20:2. Church tradition has held that John is the author of the Gospel of John and four other books of the New Testament — the three Epistles of J
Artillery Battalion, 1st Infantry Brigade (Estonia)
Artillery Battalion of the 1st Infantry Brigade the Artillery Group, is an artillery battalion of the Estonian Defence Forces, based out of Tapa Army Base. The unit is part of the Estonian Land Forces, it is tasked with supporting combat units with indirect fire during war-time. The formation of an artillery unit began in early 1917, when artillerymen started gathering into a trench artillery unit, which, by December 1917, consisted of a couple hundred men. On 26 December 1917, an artillery commando was formed under the 1st Estonian Infantry Company, according to a decree by the commander of the 1st Division. Junior ensign Joosep Sild became the units commander; the unit was equipped with 24 Russian three-inch model 1902 field guns and ammunition from 44th and 45th Artillery Brigade of the Russian Empire. The 1st Estonian Artillery Brigade was formed on 16 January 1918 in Haapsalu, with podpolkovnik Andres Larka appointed as its commander. By February, the brigade consisted of five batteries, with 26 artillery pieces, 21 officers and 801 soldiers.
However, it was disbanded by bolsheviks on 21 February 1918. After the bolsheviks retreated in front of the Germans, the Estonian division was allowed to form again on 26 February, with captain Karl Tiitso becoming the artillery brigades commander; the brigade was demobilized and disarmed by German occupation forces on 5 April. On 15 November 1918, captain Hugo Kauler started gathering former artillery officers in Tallinn. On 21 November 1918 the Estonian Minister of War Andres Larka appointed him as the commander of the 1st Artillery Regiment and gave him the task of forming it; the unit had a hard time finding equipment, the first battles of the Estonian War of Independence were fought on 28 November 1918 in Narva as infantry. In December 1918, the Estonians managed to buy two 7.7 cm FK 16 field guns from the Germans. Another batch of guns was received from Finland, consisting of twenty 87 mm model 1877 and four 76 mm model 1900 field guns. By 1919, the regiment consisted of three divisions.
In total, 18 batteries participated in the War of Independence, which saw action on the Viru front, in Viljandi, Valga, Võru, under Cēsis in Latvia, against the Baltic Landwehr. In March 1920, the unit was relocated to Narva, it consisted of a training commando and the 1st Fortress Artillery Group. The unit was renamed multiple times. On 1 June 1920, it was named the Estonian: 1. Välja suurtükiväe divisjon. On 1 January 1921, it was named the Estonian: 1. Suurtükiväepolk. On 24 November 1922, it was named the Estonian: 1. Suurtükiväerügement. On 15 March 1924, the unit was reformed into the 1st Division Artillery Force, which consisted of the 1st Artillery Group, based out of Narva, 2nd Artillery Group, based out of Rakvere. Major Georg Leets became the commander of the division and major Erich Toffer became the commander of the 1st Artillery Group; the unit received its flag on 28 October 1928. By 1939, the 1st Artillery Group consisted of a headquarters, a specialist commando, three batteries with four Russian 76 mm model 1902 field guns each, one battery with two German 150 mm heavy field howitzers.
On 19 September 1940, when the Soviets had occupied Estonia, a decree ordering the disbandment of the unit was released. The liquidation of the unit was concluded on 19 December 1940. Efforts to form an artillery battalion in the newly re-established Republic of Estonia started taking shape in 1996, when a working group, called "Viro projekti", was established under the Finnish Defence Command to assist the development of Estonian Defence Forces. Reserve colonel Jouko Kivimäki was chosen to assist the restoration and development of the artillery unit. Formation of the unit was not easy, because there were few officers available, infrastructure was lacking and there was no necessary equipment. Due to these limitations, the first soldiers started receiving training in Finland in September 1997. By early 1998, the soldiers had completed their training. Finnish Defence Forces donated various equipment, including 105 mm H61-37 howitzers, which arrived between December 1997 to February 1998; the unit was restored on 20 March 1998, when the Northern Separate Infantry Battalion was transformed into the Artillery Group.
The unit received its flag on 20 March 2001. On 1 February 2003, the unit was subordinated to the Tapa Training Center. Between 2003-2004, the Artillery Group received 155 mm FH-70 howitzers from Germany, in 2008, it received 122 mm howitzers from Finland, which replaced the old 105 mm howitzers. On 1 July 2008, the unit was transferred under the North-Eastern Regional Defence Command. On 1 January 2009, the Artillery Group was renamed the Artillery Battalion. On 1 August 2014, the battalion was made part of the 1st Infantry Brigade; as of 2014, the Artillery Battalion consisted of a headquarters and support battery, artillery school, a fires battery. The first commander of the unit, since 1998, was lieutenant Rein Luhaväli. Between 2004-2005, the unit was headed by captain Enno Mõts. On 8 August 2007, captain Vahur Kütt replaced captain Viktor Kalnitski as the commander of the unit. Since August 2012, the Artillery Battalion was commanded by lieutenant colonel Kaarel Mäesalu. On 30 July 2015, major Arbo Probal became the commander of the unit.
1st Infantry Brigade Artillery Battalion, 2nd Infantry Brigade
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is Russia's second-largest city after Moscow, with 5 million inhabitants in 2012, part of the Saint Petersburg agglomeration with a population of 6.2 million. An important Russian port on the Baltic Sea, it has a status of a federal subject. Situated on the Neva River, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea, it was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on 27 May 1703. During the periods 1713–1728 and 1732–1918, Saint Petersburg was the capital of Imperial Russia. In 1918, the central government bodies moved to Moscow, about 625 km to the south-east. Saint Petersburg is one of the most modern cities of Russia, as well as its cultural capital; the Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Saint Petersburg is home to the Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world. Many foreign consulates, international corporations and businesses have offices in Saint Petersburg. An admirer of everything German, Peter the Great named the city, Sankt-Peterburg.
On 1 September 1914, after the outbreak of World War I, the Imperial government renamed the city Petrograd, meaning "Peter's city", in order to expunge the German name Sankt and Burg. On 26 January 1924, shortly after the death of Vladimir Lenin, it was renamed to Leningrad, meaning "Lenin's City". On 6 September 1991, Sankt-Peterburg, was returned. Today, in English the city is known as "Saint Petersburg". Local residents refer to the city by its shortened nickname, Piter; the city's traditional nicknames among Russians are the Window to Europe. Swedish colonists built Nyenskans, a fortress at the mouth of the Neva River in 1611, in what was called Ingermanland, inhabited by Finnic tribe of Ingrians; the small town of Nyen grew up around it. At the end of the 17th century, Peter the Great, interested in seafaring and maritime affairs, wanted Russia to gain a seaport in order to trade with the rest of Europe, he needed a better seaport than the country's main one at the time, on the White Sea in the far north and closed to shipping during the winter.
On 12 May 1703, during the Great Northern War, Peter the Great captured Nyenskans and soon replaced the fortress. On 27 May 1703, closer to the estuary 5 km inland from the gulf), on Zayachy Island, he laid down the Peter and Paul Fortress, which became the first brick and stone building of the new city; the city was built by conscripted peasants from all over Russia. Tens of thousands of serfs died building the city; the city became the centre of the Saint Petersburg Governorate. Peter moved the capital from Moscow to Saint Petersburg in 1712, 9 years before the Treaty of Nystad of 1721 ended the war. During its first few years, the city developed around Trinity Square on the right bank of the Neva, near the Peter and Paul Fortress. However, Saint Petersburg soon started to be built out according to a plan. By 1716 the Swiss Italian Domenico Trezzini had elaborated a project whereby the city centre would be located on Vasilyevsky Island and shaped by a rectangular grid of canals; the project is evident in the layout of the streets.
In 1716, Peter the Great appointed Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond as the chief architect of Saint Petersburg. The style of Petrine Baroque, developed by Trezzini and other architects and exemplified by such buildings as the Menshikov Palace, Kunstkamera and Paul Cathedral, Twelve Collegia, became prominent in the city architecture of the early 18th century. In 1724 the Academy of Sciences and Academic Gymnasium were established in Saint Petersburg by Peter the Great. In 1725, Peter died at the age of fifty-two, his endeavours to modernize Russia had met with opposition from the Russian nobility—resulting in several attempts on his life and a treason case involving his son. In 1728, Peter II of Russia moved his seat back to Moscow, but four years in 1732, under Empress Anna of Russia, Saint Petersburg was again designated as the capital of the Russian Empire. It remained the seat of the Romanov dynasty and the Imperial Court of the Russian Tsars, as well as the seat of the Russian government, for another 186 years until the communist revolution of 1917.
In 1736–1737 the city suffered from catastrophic fires. To rebuild the damaged boroughs, a committee under Burkhard Christoph von Münnich commissioned a new plan in 1737; the city was divided into five boroughs, the city centre was moved to the Admiralty borough, situated on the east bank between the Neva and Fontanka. It developed along three radial streets, which meet at the Admiralty building and are now one street known as Nevsky Prospekt, Gorokhovaya Street and Voznesensky Prospekt. Baroque architecture became dominant in the city during the first sixty years, culminating in the Elizabethan Baroque, represented most notably by Italian Bartolomeo Rastrelli with such buildings as the Winter Palace. In the 1760s, Baroque architecture was succeeded by neoclassical architecture. Established in 1762, the Commission of Stone Buildings of Moscow and Saint Petersburg ruled that no structure in the
Advent
Advent is a season observed in many Christian churches as a time of expectant waiting and preparation for both the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas and the return of Jesus at the Second Coming. The term is a version of the Latin word meaning "coming"; the term "Advent" is used in Eastern Orthodoxy for the 40-day Nativity Fast, which has practices different from those in the West. The Latin word adventus is the translation of the Greek word parousia used to refer to the Second Coming of Christ. For Christians, the season of Advent anticipates the coming of Christ from three different perspectives. Philip H. Pfatteicher a professor at East Stroudsberg University, notes that "since the time of Bernard of Clairvaux, Christians have spoken of the three comings of Christ: in the flesh in Bethlehem, in our hearts daily, in glory at the end of time"; the season offers the opportunity to share in the ancient longing for the coming of the Messiah, to be alert for his Second Coming. Advent is the beginning of the Western liturgical year.
In the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, the Western Rite of the Orthodox Church, in the Anglican, Moravian and Methodist calendars, Advent commences on the fourth Sunday before Christmas—the Sunday nearest to St. Andrew's Day, it can fall on any date between 3 December. When Christmas Day is a Monday, Advent Sunday will fall on its latest possible date. In the Ambrosian Rite and the Mozarabic Rite of the Catholic Church, Advent begins on the sixth Sunday before Christmas, the Sunday after St. Martin's Day. Practices associated with Advent include keeping an Advent calendar, lighting an Advent wreath, praying an Advent daily devotional, erecting a Christmas tree or a Chrismon tree, lighting a Christingle, as well as other ways of preparing for Christmas, such as setting up Christmas decorations, a custom, sometimes done liturgically through a hanging of the greens ceremony; the equivalent of Advent in Eastern Christianity is called the Nativity Fast, but it differs in length and observances, does not begin the liturgical church year as it does in the West.
The Eastern Nativity Fast does not use the equivalent parousia in its preparatory services. It is not known when the period of preparation for Christmas, now called Advent first began – it was in existence from about 480 – and the novelty introduced by the Council of Tours of 567 was to order monks to fast every day in the month of December until Christmas, it is "impossible to claim with confidence a credible explanation of the origin of Advent". Associated with Advent was a period of fasting, known as the Nativity Fast or the Fast of December. According to Saint Gregory of Tours the celebration of Advent began in the fifth century when the Bishop Perpetuus directed that starting with the feast of St. Martin, 11 November, until Christmas, one fasts three times per week; this practice remained limited to the diocese of Tours until the sixth century. But the Macon council held in 581 adopted the practice in Tours and soon all France observed three days of fasting a week from the feast of Saint Martin until Christmas.
The most devout worshipers in some countries exceeded the requirements adopted by the Council of Macon, fasted every day of Advent. The homilies of Gregory the Great in the late sixth century showed four weeks to the liturgical season of Advent, but without the observance of a fast. However, under Charlemagne in the ninth century, writings claim that the fast was still observed. In the thirteenth century, the fast of Advent was not practised although, according to Durand of Mende, fasting was still observed; as quoted in the bull of canonisation of St. Louis, the zeal with which he observed this fast was no longer a custom observed by Christians of great piety, it was limited to the period from Saint Andrew until Christmas Day, since the solemnity of this apostle was more universal than that of St. Martin; when Pope Urban V ascended the papal seat in 1362, he forced people in his court to abstinence but there was no question of fasting. It was customary in Rome to observe five weeks of Advent before Christmas.
This is discussed in the Sacramentary of St. Gregory. Ambrosian or Milan Liturgies have six; the Greeks show no more real consistency. The liturgy of Advent remained unchanged until the Second Vatican Council, in 1963, introduced minor changes, differentiating the spirit of Lent from that of Advent, emphasising Advent as a season of hope for Christ's coming now as a promise of his Second Coming; the theme of readings and teachings during Advent is the preparation for the Second Coming, while commemorating the First Coming of Christ at Christmas. The first clear references in the Western Church to Advent occur in the Gelasian Sacramentary, which provides Advent Collects and Gospels for the five Sundays preceding Christmas and for the corresponding Wednesdays and Fridays. While the Sunday readings relate to the first coming of Jesus Christ as saviour as well as to his Second Coming as judge, traditions vary in the relative importance of penitence and expectation during the weeks in Advent. Since the 13th century, the usual liturgical colour in Western Christianity for Advent has been violet.
The violet or purple colour is used for hangings around the church, the vestments of the clergy, also the tabernacle
Estonia
Lääne-Viru County
Tapa Parish
Akaa, Finland
Preetz, Germany
Dobele, Latvia
Trosa Municipality, Sweden
Cumberland, United States
