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The Advent Calendar

By Josef Ruland
Information kindly provided by the Consulate General of Federal Republic of Germany, Vancouver

Advent starts on the first Sunday after November the 26th. This time is devoted to preparations for Christmas. After the four Advent Sundays are over, there follow Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It can happen that the fourth Sunday in Advent and Christmas Eve fall on the same day.

Almost everything that happens during the Advent period is done with Christmas in mind. If a house painter has a job, it is expected this will be completed before Christmas Eve, and other more extensive projects have to be completed by then too.

Advent calendars with their bright Christmasy pictures hang alongside children's beds. If you look more closely, you discover small numbers in this picture. One, two, three, and so on up to 24. Wherever the numbers are, there are small paper windows. When you open these windows you find a little picture on transparent paper: a candle, a ball, a snowman - whatever children like. They open a new window every morning, and then they know that there are still twenty three days to Christmas, twenty two, twenty one, and so on. Every day Christmas Eve, so much longed for and charged with wishes, comes a little closer. These Advent calendars can also be stood on the table in front of a lit candle so that the little windows are illuminated to children's great delight. A more recent variant of the Advent calendar consists of o chain of candles. Small balls of wax or stearin are numbered one to twenty four for the days till Christmas, and one of these is it and burns down every evening. Care must be taken of course to ensure that this candle-chain not cause any risk of fire.

The Advent star is a special form of Advent calendar. Twenty four little stars are attached to a big six-pointed star. A little star is removed every day until on Christmas Eve the unadorned large star hangs on the wall as a symbol of the light associated with the days to come.

Advent stars based on the model established by the Bohemian Brethren have also become popular. This is a freestanding star that can have 20, 26, 30, 50, or even 110 points. It disseminates an auspicious light - maybe red, or some other colour - throughout the whole of Advent. The Brothers at Bad Boll sell such stars so as to perform charitable works with the proceeds.

Apart from the Advent calendar, families also have an Advent wreath. This is a wreath made out of bound fir twigs to which four candles are attached. One more candle is lit for each of the Advent Sundays. In large houses, shops, and in Churches, these Advent wreaths hang from the ceiling, adorned with four fat red or yellow candles. This looks particularly splendid when the wreath is also decorated with red or violet ribbons dangling picturesquely. The time of contemplation, of family togetherness, has started. In many places, church and secular groups hold a splendid celebration around the first Sunday in Advent. Choirs perform Advent songs, and music is played in the family circle. The Advent wreath is on the table in most homes. As it gets dark on the Sunday afternoon, the father, mother, or one of the older children takes a book and reads some poems or a story. The small ones listen in complete silence, heads on their arms and eyes fixed on the candles. Perhaps a boy or girl has learnt this poem by heart:

Good tidings we bring of Advent's return.
Look, the first candles already burn!
Christians rejoice!
Be of good cheer
for the Lord is near!

As the wax drips onto the green twigs the words or song fade away, and the season of Christmas really starts.

No one knows when the Advent wreath came to Germany and where it originated. It does not date back very far as a Christmas custom but has already firmly established itself. If you happen to pass by flower shops or nurseries during the week before the first Sunday in Advent, you will see many, many Advent wreaths, and eager hands binding and decorating more wreaths. Pine and fir cones, little red mushrooms, or red and yellow ribbons are also attached to the green of the wreath. Here and there artificial snow is strewn on the twigs since winter is already under way.

Perhaps the Advent wreath came to Germany from Sweden in emulation of the Nordic "Crown of Lights". It was originally more common in North German towns than elsewhere in the country. From around 1930 it suddenly spread to all levels of the population. You can easily make such a wreath for yourself, and anyone who cannot do that or does not find any fir twigs can be satisfied with a decorated candle whose pre-Christmas glow is almost equally good.

There is a more recent custom linked with the Advent wreath. This was introduced within a very short time by long-distance lorry drivers, and has already spread throughout the Federal Republic and to neighbouring countries. At the start of Advent, these drivers put a small plastic Christmas tree in their cabins. The coloured bulbs on the tree are connected to the lorry's battery and lit up after dark.

St. Nicholas • The Christmas Markets • Christmas Eve • The Christmas Tree

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