The word ‘advent’ comes from the Latin - ‘ad’ meaning ‘towards’ and ‘ven/vent’ from the Latin verb ‘veno’, meaning ‘come’. Advent refers to the days approaching the coming of Christ to earth. More specifically, in the German tradition, it refers to the 24 days immediately preceding Christmas day.

One of the most common items used to celebrate advent is the advent calendar. The calendar’s origins stretch back to the 19th century from the protestant area of Germany. Protestant Christian families made a chalk line for every day in December until Christmas Eve. Before long, commercially minded folk started replacing the temporary chalk lines with printed calendars. The first known advent calendar is for 1851.

The first printed specimen was made by Gerhard Lang (1881 - 1974) from Maulbronn in Germany. When he was a child his mother made him an advent calendar with 24 little lollies. Later Gerhard worked at the printing office Reichhold & Lang where he published miniature coloured pictures which could be attached onto a cardboard every day through December. At the beginning of the 20th century he produced calendars with little doors to open.

The celebration of advent and the associated advent calendar caught on like wildfire in the early decades of this century. However, despite the great success of Gerhard’s version, he had to close his company in the 1930s because of World War II. This same war ended this German practice in many homes and certainly stopped the increase of this tradition.

The first printed specimen after the war came from Richard Sellmer in 1946. A business carrying Richard’s name continues today and can be found at www.sellmer-verlag.de [sellmer-verlag.de] where traditional calendars continue to be sold online. Advent calendars are still printed to this day and are a great craft tradition for the family to work on before Christmas. It’s not too late to start a tradition like this for your family, one that will become a real treasure in the years to come.

Advent calendars filled with chocolate were available by 1958 but calendars with things such as Christmas pictures, a religious picture or a bible verse are also possible.

The first Advent calendars were based on 24 days with Christmas Eve as the last night to either put up a picture or take a candy. Today, the traditional German calendars still show 24 days but, in some countries, it’s not uncommon to also find ones with 25 days - the last opening to occur on Christmas Day.

There are now permanent calendars - with little drawers that are opened every day - or felt pieces to be used to decorate a tree, religious icons behind the different doors and lots of pop-culture/character calendars. The traditional ones are still a paper/cardboard piece with a small treasure behind the doors.

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