Advent

- the preparation for Christmas

Advent is the time of preparation for Christmas, for many people the most beautiful time of the year. It's also known as the most silent time of the year.

Advent season starts at the first Sunday of Advent (we call it "Adventssonntag"), which is always between the 27th of November and 3rd of December each year and ends on Christmas Eve.
With the "first advent" the new church year begins (in catholic and evangelic church).

Where does the name "Advent" come from?

The name "Advent" comes from the Latin word "adventus" and means "Arrival".
In the 5th century advent was celebrated in the Area round Ravenna (Italy) for the first time.

Pope Gregor the Great established the number of Advent Sundays. Until then there was always a changing number up to 6 Sundays. The four weeks stand for 4000 years, in which humanity (after Christian calculation of times) had to wait for Redeemer's Arrival.
In former years the time of advent was a Christian time for abstinence.

Advent tradtitions

Advent wreath
Most families celebrate advent with an Advent wreath, festive decorated with four candles.
The wreath is mostly made of thin fir twigs. It's a very young custom, which was adopted from most of t he German and Austrian families at the beginning of the 19th century. The Advent wreath stands for the Christian fight against darkness of life.

The first Advent wreath in Germany was set up by Johann Hinrich Wichern (see picture) in 1839 in front of a home for orphaned kids.
On a wooden wheel 23 candles were set. Four big white ones stood for the Sundays until the Day of the Christ, 19 small red candles for the weekdays until Christmas. Every day the kids lit a candle so that all candles were lit on Christmas Eve.
Since 1860 Wichern used fir wreaths.

Christstollen:
Typical for the (German) advent season is to bake "Christstollen" (I think in English it's called "stollen" as well). The eldest Christmas Bakery was mentioned in 1330.

Advent singing:
To join in the silent advent season in many areas of Austria and also in parts of Germany the traditional "Advent singing" takes place.
In Salzburg (Austria) Advent singing began as a small, private festivity in 1946 and advanced with an audience of 40.000 visitors each year to the third most important Happening in Austria.
In many German cities each year an international singing takes place.

And finally, our Advent wreath:

Hope you liked it so far. If so, please leave a comment and visit my Christmas-Blog again!
Hugs,

Christmas
Advent