This special form of early Advent calendar was developed in Austria. A ladder was placed on which the baby Jesus climbed from top to bottom, step by step, day after day during Advent. The intention was to visually represent the idea that God comes to people on earth at Christmas.
Chalk marks on the wall
Around 1840, however, many other precursors to today’s Advent calendar were developed to shorten children’s wait for Christmas. For example, some Protestant families gradually hung 24 pictures with Christmas motifs on the wall. Others drew chalk lines on the door – longer for Sundays, shorter for weekdays – that children could erase or cross out every day.
So-called “Advent trees” or wooden frames on which children hung small flags or stars with Bible verses printed on them were also common. There were also families who lit an Advent candle every day: a candle with 24 armfuls that could only be burned until the next armful of each day.
A bed for baby Jesus
In Catholic families, parents also created a kind of Advent calendar: if they behaved well or for every good deed, children could put a straw or a feather in the manger every day to make a soft bed for the baby Jesus. This tradition still exists today in some monastic schools. It was also customary to celebrate devotions 24 days before Christmas.
ORF In some Catholic families, children could place a straw in the manger every day so that the baby Jesus could lie gently.
more on the subject
All about the Advent wreath
Preparation for the birth of Jesus Christ
The history of the Advent calendar, which began in 1838, goes back to Johann Heinrich Wichern. The head of a rescue center for Protestant boys near Hamburg had to repeatedly answer the question of when Christmas would finally be. That’s why he said he took an old wagon wheel and a wooden garland and placed 20 red and four white candles on them.
During daily devotions, children could light one candle each – on Sundays, one white candle each. The history of the Advent wreath, which originally had 24 candles, also goes back to Wichner’s idea. Lighting the candles was originally intended to prepare people for the birth of Jesus Christ. The growing light symbolized the imminent arrival of Jesus Christ, the “light of the world.”
During the Nazi era, the printing of Advent calendars was stopped as they were “unimportant to the war effort.” After 1945, the Advent calendar finally made its big breakthrough.
About the custom of giving
In 1902, the first printed Advent calendar was published in a Protestant bookstore in Hamburg. It showed a Christmas clock, a disc with different sections – initially with the numbers 13 to 24, but from 1922 they finally had 24 fields. During Advent, children could cut out a picture each day and stick it in a designated window.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the custom of giving gifts developed gradually – especially at Christmas time. More and more products went on sale, including paper Advent calendars with windows that could be opened. The first chocolate-filled Advent calendar was finally released in 1958.