Advent Calendar Origin & History
The Advent Season
Originally, the Advent season (in Latin, “adventus”, which means arrival) is meant to be a time of mental and spiritual preparation for the greatest Christian holiday of the year, the birth of Jesus on the night of December 24th.
The Advent spans the 4 Sundays before Christmas, beginning with the first Sunday after the 26th of November. The Advent season ends on December 24th after sunset, which marks the beginning of Christmas Eve. In the Roman Catholic Church, there were initially between 2 and 4 Sundays in Advent, until Pope Gregor the Great (pontificate 590-604) officially made it 4 Sundays.
The Advent spans the 4 Sundays before Christmas, beginning with the first Sunday after the 26th of November. The Advent season ends on December 24th after sunset, which marks the beginning of Christmas Eve. In the Roman Catholic Church, there were initially between 2 and 4 Sundays in Advent, until Pope Gregor the Great (pontificate 590-604) officially made it 4 Sundays.
Origin of the Advent calendar – the beginnings
The Advent calendar originated over the course of the 19th century in the German-speaking world. It had many predecessors, which arose more or less simultaneously in different places. While the Catholic Church celebrated the Advent with daily prayers in this time, in Protestant families this time of devotions and contemplation took place within the family. The Bible was read aloud, verses were recited, people prayed together and sung devotional songs.
Since time is an abstract value, and it is particularly difficult for children to grasp, around 1840 parents began to think up a variety of ways to illustrate the remaining time until Advent for their children in order to highlight the special, holiday atmosphere of the Advent season.
For example, families began to hang up pictures with Christmas themes on the wall or in the windows. Another variation was that parents made 24 lines with chalk – the Sundays were marked with longer or colored strokes – on cabinet doors or door frames. The children were then allowed to wipe away one stroke each day.
Little Christmas trees (in part, also handmade wooden frames) served as “Advent trees”. Every day little flags or stars adorned with Bible verses were hung in the trees. In some families, an additional candle was put on the tree and lit each day.The increasing light in the trees symbolized the approaching arrival of the Light of the World, Jesus Christ.
In some Catholic regions the children were allowed to place pieces of straw or feathers into the manger for their good deeds (!) each day, so that baby Jesus could lie comfortably. Even today this custom is still practiced in certain convent and monastery schools.
In Austria, creative parents made “heaven ladders”, a special type of Advent calendar. One progresses down the ladder rung by rung each day, illustrating the concept that on Christmas, God comes down to Earth.
In Scandinavia at this time, the custom emerged of dividing a candle into 24 segments and letting it burn down segment by segment over 24 days’ time.
In Buddenbrooks, Thomas Mann described a homemade tear-off calendar which the nanny Ida made for Hanno, her charge. “With the help of the tear-off calendar which Ida had made for him, and on whose last page a Christmas tree was drawn, little Johann followed the nearing of that incomparable time with a racing heart.”
At the end of the 19th century, creative parents made so-called “Christmas clocks”, with a round face divided into 12 or 24 segments, on which the hands could be moved one step further each day. Each segment was adorned with song texts or Bible verses.
Thus the Advent calendar became a way of measuring the days until Christmas Eve in order to demonstrate the remaining time to children and to heighten the anticipation of the Christmas celebration.
Since time is an abstract value, and it is particularly difficult for children to grasp, around 1840 parents began to think up a variety of ways to illustrate the remaining time until Advent for their children in order to highlight the special, holiday atmosphere of the Advent season.
For example, families began to hang up pictures with Christmas themes on the wall or in the windows. Another variation was that parents made 24 lines with chalk – the Sundays were marked with longer or colored strokes – on cabinet doors or door frames. The children were then allowed to wipe away one stroke each day.
Little Christmas trees (in part, also handmade wooden frames) served as “Advent trees”. Every day little flags or stars adorned with Bible verses were hung in the trees. In some families, an additional candle was put on the tree and lit each day.The increasing light in the trees symbolized the approaching arrival of the Light of the World, Jesus Christ.
In some Catholic regions the children were allowed to place pieces of straw or feathers into the manger for their good deeds (!) each day, so that baby Jesus could lie comfortably. Even today this custom is still practiced in certain convent and monastery schools.
In Austria, creative parents made “heaven ladders”, a special type of Advent calendar. One progresses down the ladder rung by rung each day, illustrating the concept that on Christmas, God comes down to Earth.
In Scandinavia at this time, the custom emerged of dividing a candle into 24 segments and letting it burn down segment by segment over 24 days’ time.
In Buddenbrooks, Thomas Mann described a homemade tear-off calendar which the nanny Ida made for Hanno, her charge. “With the help of the tear-off calendar which Ida had made for him, and on whose last page a Christmas tree was drawn, little Johann followed the nearing of that incomparable time with a racing heart.”
At the end of the 19th century, creative parents made so-called “Christmas clocks”, with a round face divided into 12 or 24 segments, on which the hands could be moved one step further each day. Each segment was adorned with song texts or Bible verses.
Thus the Advent calendar became a way of measuring the days until Christmas Eve in order to demonstrate the remaining time to children and to heighten the anticipation of the Christmas celebration.