Advent Calendar and Advent Wreath

Being married to a German I was luckily introduced to two very old German traditions: the Adventskalendar and Adventskranz, Advent Calendar and Advent Wreath, respectively.

The Advent Wreath consists of some pine leaves four candles and originally three of them purple representing penance and a pink for the hope of the upcoming joy. The four candles represent the four Sundays before Christmas. Each Sunday one of the purple candles is lighted. And during that week only that candle is being lighted. On the last Sunday before Christmas, the pink candle is lighted. On Christmas eve, all the candles are changed into white. In accordance with this there is a small poem which goes:

Advent, Advent ein Lichtlein brennt
erst eins, dann zwei, dann drei, dann vier
dann steht das Christkind vor der Tuer!

I will try hard to translate:
Advent, Adven, a small light burns
First one, then two, then three, then four
then Baby Jesus is at the door.

Then we have an additional line to it:
Und wenn das fuenfte Lichtlein brennt
dann hast du Weihnachten verpennt.

And when the fifth little light is burned
well, you have just missed Christmas!


Ever wonder why those boxed Advents Calendar filled with chocolates are being sold before Christmas? Apparently in the olden days, old Lutheran families would count down the days by marking their door with a chalk line. Why the door? Because Child Jesus arrives at the door. Stephan has a very old frame which is filled with little doors and he opened one door every day to see what is behind that door, a small picture pertaining to Christmas. In Fiji, we had nothing like this so I had the seamstress or was it my household helper make small pockets decorated with shining gold numbers at random. Along a string we hanged them and each day of December, I opened one pocket. At night, I sneaked in to touch the pocket what will the next day bring me. Mostly during Christmas parents are more lax on giving their children sweets, so in those little pockets were few pieces of candy. It was a treat if I found snickers or a lipstick in it! Our helper and guard, both Salvadoreños and do not know the tradition, got everyday together with me some sweets placed upon their entrance to our house to start their working day.

So there you go. Get ready to buy the Wreath (can make it yourself too) and the Adventskalendar which I just bought one for Adrian at lunch today.

Happy Advent!