From a recent blog post: We had a lovely Eve of Advent Service on Rayadi, and Honored Raya in her sermon explained something I have never understood. Why does Advent come so suddenly? Because it does, doesn’t it? Every year, even though some shops have had Nativity displays since the Feast of the Dead, we suddenly think “Golly-gosh-oh-greenies, is it Advent already? Well there really is a spiritual reason for that. I don’t know if I can explain it as well as Honored Raya, but essentially it is because Nativity, the Winter Solstice, really is the Northern Gate of the Year, where Heaven enters the realm of earth – and the birth of God the Daughter really is a Mystery and an apparent paradox (Dea coming where Dea is not). So the Coming of the Daughter really is a “surprise” in the deepest spiritual sense, and, as superficial things metaphysically reflect deep things, the Advent always tends to take us by surprise.