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Germans observe numerous traditions during Advent season, which started Sunday and will continue until Christmas.
The word Advent comes from the Latin verb “advenare,” which means “to arrive” and indicates the coming of Christ.
Lighting candles on the Advent wreath is one tradition. The original Advent wreath is made of fir tree branches decorated with four candles, fir cones, ribbons and small Christmas ornaments. The first candle is lit the fourth Sunday before Christmas. Each following Advent Sunday, another candle gets lit. Today, Advent wreaths of different shapes are made of different materials and placed in homes, stores, offices, public buildings and churches.
The history of the Advent wreath dates back to Northern Germany in 1839, when Johann Hinrich Wichern, the founder of the Evangelist Home Mission and a juvenile home, created the first wreath made of wood and decorated with 24 candles: four big white ones for Sundays and a small red one to be lit on weekdays.
Children’s most favorite Advent item is the Advent calendar. Starting Dec. 1, children open a door each day until Christmas Eve, when traditionally German children receive their gifts. The history of the Advent calendar is more than 100 years old. It was invented by a mother in München, whose son Gerhard, as soon as the first candle of the Advent wreath was lit, kept asking when Santa Claus would come and bring the gifts. Gerhard’s mother had to think of something to make him understand when the waiting time would be over. So, she designed a cardboard box and drew 24 squares on it. She explained to Gerhard that each square meant getting up once and going to bed again. She even sewed a cookie onto each square to sweeten up the waiting time.
From then on, Gerhard’s mother had to design a calendar every year until she thought he was too old for it.
At the turn of the century, Gerhard founded, together with a partner, a lithographic art publishing company. When business wasn’t good anymore, he remembered his mother’s idea and brought the “Munich Christmas calendar” onto the market in 1904. Its subtitle was “The 24 Waiting Days” and it was sold for 30 pfennigs (about 15 euro cents) in stationer shops.
Today, different kinds of Advent calendars are available — cardboard calendars, felt calendars with filled pockets, 24 bags hung up on a string or 24 little houses set up like a town.
