Christmas lights and various decorations, as well as various sweets and traditional foods are already flooding the streets, supermarkets and stores even though there are weeks and days left to celebrate the holidays. Christmas partiesSomething comes early every time, but it has an explanation, or at least it has an explanation.
The tradition speaks of a specific, earlier time to prepare for Christmas, which is what we call it comingWhich begins on the fourth Sunday before December 25, and in 2025 it was November 30.
What is Advent and its relationship to Christmas?
The word “Advent” comes from the Latin word “adventus,” which is a preparation or countdown until Judgment Day. ChristmasIt is part of the Christian liturgical calendar, which dates back to the beginnings of the religion dating back to the time of the Roman Empire.
In fact, Advent marks the beginning of the Christian liturgical year and is celebrated during the four weeks leading up to Christmas Day, December 25, with each Sunday dedicated to a Christian virtue such as hope, peace, joy and love.
These four virtues, celebrated every Sunday, are represented by the four candles of the Advent wreath, one of the most popular pre-Christmas symbols, like the countdown, popularized by the Germans johan witchern, Lutheran pastor, in the nineteenth century.
Origin and history of advent
The origin of Advent goes back to the 4th and 5th centuries, when the tradition already existed in some Roman areas e.g Hispania also GaulWhere they prepared for the baptism of new Christians that would take place on the Day of Resurrection Epiphanywhich takes place on January 6 and who wanted to remember the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River and also his first miracle at the wedding at Cana.
Beginning in the 6th century, this tradition spread to other areas of the Roman Empire, and Advent was thus associated with the coming of Christmas, a time when not only Jesus’ birth was commemorated but also his return from earth. Jesus as a judge, a link between the past and the future that can be found in its Christian symbolism today.
The origin of the advent calendar
Another product already filling the shelves of supermarkets and stores before Christmas is the Advent calendar, which is far from being a novelty, but rather a deep-rooted tradition that comes from Germany, dating back to the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as to the Lutheran denomination.
Families in the 19th century devoted themselves to marking the days before Christmas by chalking their doors as a conspicuous and important countdown, and the printer took the idea from this tradition. Gerhard LangeWho created the first calendar in 1908 in Munich based on his experience with his mother, who left him sweets behind cardboard doors.
This idea spread after World War II, especially in the United States and elsewhere in Europe, after its restoration Richard Selmer in Stuttgart, thus creating a company today dedicated exclusively to upcoming calendars.