I DON’T GET IT: Where did advent calendars come from?

DECEMBER is here, which means we can finally crack open our advent calendars! But where did the tradition of advent calendars come from? Advent is the season leading up to Christmas. In the Christian faith, it represents a time of preparation for the celebration of Jesus’s birth. Did you know the word advent actually means ’arrival’ or ‘coming’ in Latin? Unlike some of our calendars, which start on 1 December, advent actually begins four Sundays before Christmas and ends on Christmas Eve. Yep, technically that means Advent starts in November. The tradition of advent calendars is believed to date back to the 19th century (that’s 1800s). German Protestants made chalk marks on doors or lit candles to count down the days until Christmas. In the 1900s, a man called Gerhard Lang started mass-producing cardboard calendars. Initially they just had pictures on them, and then later little doors were added. As calendars developed, people began to add Bible readings and religious figures behind each door, too.