In German homes where there are children, and in many homes where there are none, December 1st is the day for another of Germany's Christmas traditions to begin. An Advent Calendar, perhaps picturing a Nativity or
Christmas snow scene and with numbered doors or flaps, will be opened impatiently every day on the countdown until Christmas Eve, Heiligabend, sometimes on Christmas day itself, revealing behind each opening nativity scenes or other pictures under little pieces of angel, star or snowmen shaped chocolate, sweets, or alternative little surprises, and for the somewhat more mature tastes, chocolate truffles or liqueurs.Several legends exist about their origins but it is believed the first Advent Calendar originated in the protestant region of 19th Century Germany, where devout families marked each day of December, until Heiligabend, with a chalk line drawn onto a door or wall.
Which is rather a long way from some 1.75 metre high Advent calendars that are sold, with their twenty four doors opening onto everything from designer sunglasses to pictures of 8.5 meter speedboats that, for obvious reasons, do not fit.
By the late 1800's the chalk lines had developed into a painted poster or card with twenty four windows that opened onto a biblical verse or religious scene, while families had also been creating their own calendars. However the first mass printed Advent Calendar is thought to have been the one with tiny coloured pictures which could be stuck each day onto a cardboard base, produced in Munich in 1908 by Gerhard Lang, a pastor's son born in Maulbronn, a village in Southern Germany's Black Forest.
During Gerhard's childhood his mother had made him calendars with twenty four small boxes attached to a board, each carrying a sweet biscuit or a small candle, to mark the days to Christmas Eve, and he developed this idea giving rise to a new and popular Advent tradition in Germany. Over thirty
different styles of calendar were created and they were made with little doors, or holding small bags which contained pictures of the nativity, bible extracts or sweets. However World War II brought the custom to an end, cardboard was rationed and the celebration of advent was not followed as it had been. Gerhard Lang's business closed and it was not until 1946 that the commercial tradition was restarted in the US zone of post war Germany by Richard Sellmer, working in the living room of his Stuttgart home.
President Eisenhower bought some of the calendars for his grandchildren in the early 1950's when the idea was made part of charitable business cooperation in the USA, while the custom itself regained popularity throughout Germany and eventually spread worldwide, with chocolates or sweets being added behind the calendar windows by the end of the 1950's.
Many towns in Germany now feature what is known as a Walking Advent Calendar, in which imaginatively painted and themed windows on various buildings are illuminated until all twenty four shine through the dark streets, and in numerous towns and cities the Town Hall itself becomes an Advent calendar, as every day for twenty four days lights reveal a window decorated by school children or artists. ..............................click on picture to enlarge
Gengenbach, a beautiful medieval town of half timbered buildings and cobbled streets in Germany's Black Forest, probably has
the largest of these giant Advent calendars featured on twenty four of the front facing windows of its pink baroque Town Hall.......................click on picture to enlarge While on the other side of the country, in Leipzig, from December 1st until Christmas one of the two by three metre three-dimensional windows of the largest freestanding Advent calendar in the world will be opened at 5 p.m. each day.
But almost certainly the most treasured of the Advent calendars are the ones that are brought out from the Christmas decoration box and filled with small surprises each year.
Handmade designs created while children are small,
and most often with their help, handed down through the generations or bought from a Weihnachtsmarkt, a Christmas market, and treasured for their memories, they contribute to the feeling of tradition, continuation and charm that is a German Christmas.Have a wonderful 'Adventszeit'.
Wooden Advent Calendar from Weihnachtsmarkt - 1946 Adventskalender courtesy Irmgard Bossert - Walking Advent Calendar, Wallenfels’sches Haus, Gießen, Germany, courtesy Stefan Floeper - Adventskalender am Rathaus von Gengenbach, courtesy Peter Buck - Crafted Advent Calendar, made and photographed by Andrea Schaufler – all Creative Commons via de.Wikipedia
Imported from Germany this delicious Black Forest Stollen Christmas Cake is just like the ones which will join the plaetzchen, Christmas Cookies, that are enjoyed thoughout a German Advent and holiday season
Here is a beautiful Advent Calender to bring out every year and help count those days to Christmas. By Eric Carle, of 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' fame, it is the enchanting 'Dream Snow Pop-Up Advent Calendar'
