| Origin
of the Advent Calendar
The
origin of the Advent Calendar can be traced back to the
19th. Century. The first styles came from the protestant
area. So religious families made a chalk line for every day
in December until Christmas Eve.
The
first known Advent Calendar which was made by handwork is
from the year 1851.
Other
early styles were the Adventclock or the Adventcandle - a
candle for each of the 24 days until Christmas, like todays
Advent wreath. So in religious families little pictures were
hang up on the wall - one for each day in December. An other
tradition was to paint chalk strokes on the door, one per
day until Christmas Eve.
In 1902 a Christian Bookshop in Hamburg published a
Christmas Clock which was very similar to that published
1922 by the St. Johannis printing company. (Dominik
Wunderlin, lic.phil. Swizzerland). The Austrian (NÖ)
Landesmuseum is giving the year 1903 as the year of the
first printed Advent Calendar. In 1904 an Advent Calendar
was inserted in the newspaper "Neues Tagblatt
Stuttgart" as a gift for their readers.
In
contrast to the above Esther Gajek says that the first
printed speciem was made in 1908 by a Swabian parishioner,
Gerhard Lang (born 1881 in Maulbronn, Germany -died in
1974).
When
he was a child his mother made him an Advent Calendar with
24 "Wibbele" (little candies) which were sticked
on a cardboard.
Later
Lang was a participator of the printing office Reichhold
& Lang. He produced little colored pictures which could
be affixed on a cardboard at every day in December.
This was
the first printed Advent Calendar, although without windows
to open, published in 1908. This Calendar was named
"Christmas-Calendar" or "Munich
Christmas-Calendar". At the beginning of the 20th Lang
produced the first Advent Calendars with little doors to
open.
At
this time as well the Sankt Johannis Printing Company
started producing religious Advent Calendars, with Bible
Verses instead of pictures behind the doors.
The
Advent Calendar started a triumphal way around the globe.
But Lang had to close his company in the thirties. Until
that time he had produced about 30 different designs.
The
World War II terminated the success of this German
tradition. The cardboard was rationed and it was forbidden
to produce Calendars with pictures. The first printed
speciem after the war were printed by Richard Sellmer in
1946.
We know that Advent Calendars filled with Chocolate was
already available in 1958.
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