Imagine, you are a child living in the 1920s and it is the first day of Advent. This year, your Mother has a special surprise for you. She told you she would give it to you in the morning and you can't wait to see what it is. You hope it will be an Advent Calendar, like the ones you saw in the city recently. Sure enough, when you go down for breakfast with your parents, Mother hands you an Advent Calendar. You search for the first window and carefully pull it open, making sure not to crease the paper.
When I took this Advent Calender to show the children, they were really intrigued. They knew what an Advent Calendar was, of course, particularly the type which hides chocolate behind the little windows! To see that they were not a new, commercial idea though was very intriguing. With so many modern Advent Calendars depicting popular movie and book characters the children had assumed they were a modern idea, simply a modern trimming to a modern, secular Christmas. They were surprised to realise that Advent was actually a religious tradition, and actually started either before December 1 or even a little after!
Like so many other traditions we associate with Christmas, Advent Calendars first started to be made in Germany, over 150 years ago. They were made to mark the season of Advent, the Catholic season of preparing for Christmas, though the calendars usually start on the first of December while Advent itself actually starts on the 4th Sunday before Christmas. The true Advent season this year started on November 27th. At first, the 'Advent Calendar' was marked by drawing chalk lines each day of the season, or by lighting candles or even by hanging religious pictures up on the wall, a new one being put up each day. The first known public Advent Wreath was hung in 1839 in the Prayer Hall of the Rauhes Haus in Hamburg and the first handmade Advent Calendar is thought to date to 1851.
Advent Calendars as we know them though are printed cardboard or paper. These didn't start to appear until the early 1900s. The actual date of the first printed Advent Calendar is disputed with some claiming that the first one appeared in 1902 or 1903 and others claiming that Gerhard Lang created the first one in 1908. There was also a calendar printed in a German Newspaper in 1904 as a gift to their readers. Early printed calendars often had pictures which needed to be stuck to a piece of carboard instead of windows to open as they usually do today. Advent Calendars continued to be popular throughout the early to mid 20th century, but during the Second World War paper shortages meant that they could not be produced. In 1946 though, after the war was over, Calendars again began to be printed and they have only increased in popularity since then. Today, as well as 'traditional' calendars with printed images or quotes behind the windows, there are also calendars with gifts or chocolate behind the windows. Advent Calendars also come in a variety of designs, with some showing popular movie characters, and others sticking to more traditional themes. The one I showed the children is a vintage calendar, printed on hessian and it has been reused each year by my siblings and I, with little parcels of lollies or chocolates being tied on, only to be carefully cut off again each day in December.
