According to the RICHARD SELLMER VERLAG Advent Calendar Company that makes them, Advent Calendars date back to 19th century Germany. Early Advent calendars were simply chalk marks on the doors of religious families. There were also Advent clocks and Advent candles.
Advent calendars were made with a picture for each day of Advent and later, with a bible verse for each day. Sometimes a peice of candy was behind the little window for each day of Advent. There was even a lampshade Advent Calendar that had little windows to open each day.
Richard Sellmer Verlag tells us that,
in 1904 an Advent Calendar was inserted in the newspaper "Neues Tagblatt Stuttgart" as a gift for their readers. We know that Advent Calendars filled with Chocolate was already available in 1958.
A great site to check out is the St. Margaret Mary Parish online Advent Calendar. It beings on November 27th, the first Sunday of Advent and has a door for each day. You cannot open the door until the day shown under it.
EWTN has an online version of an Advent Calendar as well. Theirs is a very nice devotional calendar. Click on any day of Advent and it takes you to an Advent Prayer and devotional paragraph or two to get you thinking. Well worth checking out.
Advent calendars come in all shapes, types and sizes and are a great way to celebrate Advent and look forward to Christmas and the birth of Christ.
2 comments:
Thanks for this great reminder. I have used the St. Margaret site for the past few years and have loved it.
Cool! I just discovered it this year.
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