Advent calendar
Encyclopedia
An Advent calendar is a special calendar which is used to count or celebrate the days of Advent
in anticipation of Christmas
. Some calendars are strictly religious, whereas others are secular in content. Despite the name, most commercially available Advent calendars begin on December 1, regardless of when Advent begins, which can be as early as November 27 and as late as December 3.
Today, most Advent calendars are made for children. Many take the form of a large rectangular card with "windows" of which there are often 24; one for each day of December leading up to Christmas Day. One is opened every day during Advent. In many of these calendars, each window opens to reveal an image, a poem, or a portion of a story such as the story of the Nativity of Jesus
. More elaborate Advent calendars have a small gift concealed in each window, such as a toy or a chocolate item.
The origins of the Advent calendar come from German
Lutherans who, at least as early as the beginning of the 19th century, would count down the first 24 days of December physically. Often this meant simply drawing a chalk line on the door each day, beginning on December 1. Some families had more elaborate means of marking the days, such as lighting a new candle (perhaps the genesis of today's Advent wreath
) or hanging a little religious picture on the wall each day.
The 24 candles might also be placed on a structure, which was known as an "Advent clock". In December 1839, the first verifiable public Advent wreath was hung in the prayer hall of the Rauhes Haus
(relief house) in Hamburg, although it had been a family practice in parts of German-speaking Europe since the 17th century.
The first known Advent calendar was handmade in 1851. According to the Lower Austrian (NÖ
) Landesmuseum, the first printed Advent calendar was produced in Hamburg
in 1902 or 1903. Other authorities state that a Swabian parishioner, Gerhard Lang, was responsible for the first printed calendar, in 1908.
Lang was certainly the progenitor of today's calendar. He was a printer in the firm Reichhold & Lang of Munich
who, in 1908, made 24 little colored pictures that could be affixed to a piece of cardboard. Several years later, he introduced a calendar with 24 little doors. He created and marketed at least 30 designs before his firm went out of business in the 1930s. In this same time period, Sankt Johannis Printing Company started producing religious Advent calendars, with Bible verses instead of pictures behind the doors.
The practice disappeared during World War II
, apparently to save paper. After the war, Richard Sellmer of Stuttgart
resurrected the commercial Advent calendar and is responsible for its widespread popularity. His company, Richard Sellmer Verlag, today maintains a stock of over 1,000,000 calendars worldwide. Other companies such as Cadbury's who specialise in the making of calendars have similar stocks, if not higher.
consists of two pieces of card stock
on top of each other. Twenty-four doors are cut out in the top layer, with a number ranging from one to twenty-four on each. Beginning on the first day of December, one door is opened each day, counting down the days remaining until Christmas Eve
, from one to twenty-four where the 24th door often holds an extra surprise like an extra large piece of chocolate. Some modern calendars are labeled as "countdown calendars" and are designed to start at number 24 and count down to number 1 so the number of days until Christmas can be easily determined. Each compartment displays an image, which can be either a feature of the Nativity
story and the birth of Jesus
or a piece of paraphernalia to do with Christmas (e.g., bells or holly
).
Advent calendars can also consist of cloth sheets with small pockets to be filled with candy or other small gift items. Many calendars have been adapted by merchandisers and manufacturers to include a piece of chocolate
or other confectionery behind each compartment. These are often aimed at children who are counting down to Christmas and the arrival of Santa Claus
, and have often been criticized for not relating to the Nativity and simply cashing in on Christmas sales. An example of this is the annual Lego
Advent Calendar, which has 24 doors with LEGO pieces behind each and Playmobil
has 24 playmobil items such as a Santa figure.
The number of doors can also increase to 25 or 26 to cover Christmas Day and Boxing Day
, or further to 31 or 32 to include New Year's Eve
and New Year's Day
. This latter act was particularly evident over December 1999, counting down to January 1, 2000.
The Advent calendar is normally shaped like a large greeting card, but it can be found in other shapes, such as a three-dimensional model of a house or church. There are alternative forms of Advent calendar, such as those made from felt or other material, or a chain of candles that can be lit day by day. The German city of Dresden
has a giant calendar built into a fairytale castle on its Christmas market, the Striezelmarkt
.
An alternative Advent calendar is that a box is given with a small gift, of nominal value, with one for the 24 days. The origins of this are not specifically known but certainly it is practiced in Denmark and commonly a way to send gifts to family abroad.
Another modern approach to the Advent calendar is an online version. Though some abandon the element of surprise, at least one, online Advent calendar, achieves this by making it so that, while the images representing all the days are visible from the start, each day's link cannot be by accessed until that calendar day.
, Denmark
, Sweden
, Iceland
and Finland
there is also a tradition of having a so-called Julekalender (Swedish: Julkalender, Finnish: Joulukalenteri, Icelandic: Jóladagatal; the local word for an advent calendar) in the form of a television show and a radio show, both starting on the first of December, and ending on Christmas Eve. The Julkalender was first aired on Swedish TV in 1960 with the program Titteliture. The first Julekalender aired in Denmark was Historier fra hele verden in 1962. The televised jul(e)kalender has now extended into the other Nordic countries
. In Finland, the show is called Joulukalenteri. Over the years, there have been several different kinds of julekalender; some directed at children, some at both children and adults, and even some directed at adults alone. A classic example of a Julekalender enjoyed by children (as well as adults, if purely for nostalgic reasons) is the show Jul i Skomakergata
.
The concept of the Advent Calendar has recently broadened to include "Countdown Calendars". These are calendars suitable for persons from all faiths, and can be used to count down to any event imaginable—birthdays, Easter, Halloween, graduation, last day of school, retirement, etc.
Advent
Advent is a season observed in many Western Christian churches, a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas. It is the beginning of the Western liturgical year and commences on Advent Sunday, called Levavi...
in anticipation of Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
. Some calendars are strictly religious, whereas others are secular in content. Despite the name, most commercially available Advent calendars begin on December 1, regardless of when Advent begins, which can be as early as November 27 and as late as December 3.
Today, most Advent calendars are made for children. Many take the form of a large rectangular card with "windows" of which there are often 24; one for each day of December leading up to Christmas Day. One is opened every day during Advent. In many of these calendars, each window opens to reveal an image, a poem, or a portion of a story such as the story of the Nativity of Jesus
Nativity of Jesus
The Nativity of Jesus, or simply The Nativity, refers to the accounts of the birth of Jesus in two of the Canonical gospels and in various apocryphal texts....
. More elaborate Advent calendars have a small gift concealed in each window, such as a toy or a chocolate item.
History
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
Lutherans who, at least as early as the beginning of the 19th century, would count down the first 24 days of December physically. Often this meant simply drawing a chalk line on the door each day, beginning on December 1. Some families had more elaborate means of marking the days, such as lighting a new candle (perhaps the genesis of today's Advent wreath
Advent wreath
The Advent wreath, or Advent crown, is a Christian tradition that symbolizes the passage of the four weeks of Advent in the liturgical calendar of the Western church...
) or hanging a little religious picture on the wall each day.
The 24 candles might also be placed on a structure, which was known as an "Advent clock". In December 1839, the first verifiable public Advent wreath was hung in the prayer hall of the Rauhes Haus
Rauhes Haus
Rauhes Haus is a social service institution, founded in 1833 and located in Hamburg, Germany. It shelters and trains children, the mentally handicapped and disturbed, and cares for the aged...
(relief house) in Hamburg, although it had been a family practice in parts of German-speaking Europe since the 17th century.
The first known Advent calendar was handmade in 1851. According to the Lower Austrian (NÖ
Lower Austria
Lower Austria is the northeasternmost state of the nine states in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria since 1986 is Sankt Pölten, the most recently designated capital town in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria had formerly been Vienna, even though Vienna is not officially part of Lower Austria...
) Landesmuseum, the first printed Advent calendar was produced in Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
in 1902 or 1903. Other authorities state that a Swabian parishioner, Gerhard Lang, was responsible for the first printed calendar, in 1908.
Lang was certainly the progenitor of today's calendar. He was a printer in the firm Reichhold & Lang of Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
who, in 1908, made 24 little colored pictures that could be affixed to a piece of cardboard. Several years later, he introduced a calendar with 24 little doors. He created and marketed at least 30 designs before his firm went out of business in the 1930s. In this same time period, Sankt Johannis Printing Company started producing religious Advent calendars, with Bible verses instead of pictures behind the doors.
The practice disappeared during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, apparently to save paper. After the war, Richard Sellmer of Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
resurrected the commercial Advent calendar and is responsible for its widespread popularity. His company, Richard Sellmer Verlag, today maintains a stock of over 1,000,000 calendars worldwide. Other companies such as Cadbury's who specialise in the making of calendars have similar stocks, if not higher.
Modern calendars
The traditional calendarCalendar
A calendar is a system of organizing days for social, religious, commercial, or administrative purposes. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months, and years. The name given to each day is known as a date. Periods in a calendar are usually, though not...
consists of two pieces of card stock
Card stock
Card stock, also called cover stock or pasteboard, is a paper stock that is thicker and more durable than normal writing or printing paper, but thinner and more flexible than other forms of paperboard. Card stock is often used for business cards, postcards, playing cards, catalog covers,...
on top of each other. Twenty-four doors are cut out in the top layer, with a number ranging from one to twenty-four on each. Beginning on the first day of December, one door is opened each day, counting down the days remaining until Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve refers to the evening or entire day preceding Christmas Day, a widely celebrated festival commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth that takes place on December 25...
, from one to twenty-four where the 24th door often holds an extra surprise like an extra large piece of chocolate. Some modern calendars are labeled as "countdown calendars" and are designed to start at number 24 and count down to number 1 so the number of days until Christmas can be easily determined. Each compartment displays an image, which can be either a feature of the Nativity
Nativity of Jesus
The Nativity of Jesus, or simply The Nativity, refers to the accounts of the birth of Jesus in two of the Canonical gospels and in various apocryphal texts....
story and the birth of Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
or a piece of paraphernalia to do with Christmas (e.g., bells or holly
Holly
Ilex) is a genus of 400 to 600 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. The species are evergreen and deciduous trees, shrubs, and climbers from tropics to temperate zones world wide....
).
Advent calendars can also consist of cloth sheets with small pockets to be filled with candy or other small gift items. Many calendars have been adapted by merchandisers and manufacturers to include a piece of chocolate
Chocolate
Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...
or other confectionery behind each compartment. These are often aimed at children who are counting down to Christmas and the arrival of Santa Claus
Santa Claus
Santa Claus is a folklore figure in various cultures who distributes gifts to children, normally on Christmas Eve. Each name is a variation of Saint Nicholas, but refers to Santa Claus...
, and have often been criticized for not relating to the Nativity and simply cashing in on Christmas sales. An example of this is the annual Lego
Lego
Lego is a line of construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of colorful interlocking plastic bricks and an accompanying array of gears, minifigures and various other parts...
Advent Calendar, which has 24 doors with LEGO pieces behind each and Playmobil
Playmobil
Playmobil is a line of toys produced by the Brandstätter Group , headquartered in Zirndorf, Germany.New products and product lines developed by a 50-strong development team are frequently introduced by Brandstätter. Some of these, such as promotional products, are only produced in limited quantities...
has 24 playmobil items such as a Santa figure.
The number of doors can also increase to 25 or 26 to cover Christmas Day and Boxing Day
Boxing Day
Boxing Day is a bank or public holiday that occurs on 26 December, or the first or second weekday after Christmas Day, depending on national or regional laws. It is observed in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and some other Commonwealth nations. In Ireland, it is recognized as...
, or further to 31 or 32 to include New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve is observed annually on December 31, the final day of any given year in the Gregorian calendar. In modern societies, New Year's Eve is often celebrated at social gatherings, during which participants dance, eat, consume alcoholic beverages, and watch or light fireworks to mark the...
and New Year's Day
New Year's Day
New Year's Day is observed on January 1, the first day of the year on the modern Gregorian calendar as well as the Julian calendar used in ancient Rome...
. This latter act was particularly evident over December 1999, counting down to January 1, 2000.
The Advent calendar is normally shaped like a large greeting card, but it can be found in other shapes, such as a three-dimensional model of a house or church. There are alternative forms of Advent calendar, such as those made from felt or other material, or a chain of candles that can be lit day by day. The German city of Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
has a giant calendar built into a fairytale castle on its Christmas market, the Striezelmarkt
Striezelmarkt
The Striezelmarkt in Dresden is one of Germany's oldest documented Christmas markets. It was first mentioned in 1434, under Friedrich II, an Elector of Saxony, when it was held the Monday before Christmas on the Altmarkt square...
.
An alternative Advent calendar is that a box is given with a small gift, of nominal value, with one for the 24 days. The origins of this are not specifically known but certainly it is practiced in Denmark and commonly a way to send gifts to family abroad.
Another modern approach to the Advent calendar is an online version. Though some abandon the element of surprise, at least one, online Advent calendar, achieves this by making it so that, while the images representing all the days are visible from the start, each day's link cannot be by accessed until that calendar day.
The Nordic Julekalender/Julkalender
In NorwayNorway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
and Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
there is also a tradition of having a so-called Julekalender (Swedish: Julkalender, Finnish: Joulukalenteri, Icelandic: Jóladagatal; the local word for an advent calendar) in the form of a television show and a radio show, both starting on the first of December, and ending on Christmas Eve. The Julkalender was first aired on Swedish TV in 1960 with the program Titteliture. The first Julekalender aired in Denmark was Historier fra hele verden in 1962. The televised jul(e)kalender has now extended into the other Nordic countries
Nordic countries
The Nordic countries make up a region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic which consists of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and their associated territories, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland...
. In Finland, the show is called Joulukalenteri. Over the years, there have been several different kinds of julekalender; some directed at children, some at both children and adults, and even some directed at adults alone. A classic example of a Julekalender enjoyed by children (as well as adults, if purely for nostalgic reasons) is the show Jul i Skomakergata
Jul i Skomakergata
Jul i Skomakergata is a Norwegian TV-show produced in 1979. It is a televised advent calendar, meaning it is broadcast from December 1 to December 24. It has been broadcast several times in Norway by NRK and is one of the most treasured programs in Norwegian television history. The story revolves...
.
Hand-made Advent calendars as craft projects
Hand made Advent calendars have become popular projects with craftpersons and artisans of all types. Today, we see hand made creations made from various media—including fabric, felt, paper, chipboard, small boxes, etc.The concept of the Advent Calendar has recently broadened to include "Countdown Calendars". These are calendars suitable for persons from all faiths, and can be used to count down to any event imaginable—birthdays, Easter, Halloween, graduation, last day of school, retirement, etc.