WEBVTT - Advent Calendars 0:00:01.320 --> 0:00:04.280 Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:14.080 of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly 0:00:14.120 --> 0:00:18.640 Frye and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. So, as this episode airs, 0:00:18.760 --> 0:00:22.400 we are already into Advent, both on the religious calendar 0:00:22.920 --> 0:00:26.920 and as the word relates to Christmas countdown calendars and 0:00:27.000 --> 0:00:30.360 those two things. Even though the countdown calendars have become 0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:33.400 very very secular in some iterations, they still share a 0:00:33.479 --> 0:00:36.400 root origin. And today you can get gift calendars that 0:00:36.440 --> 0:00:39.519 are called Advent calendars don't even count down to Christmas, 0:00:39.560 --> 0:00:41.880 they don't really reference Advent at all, but they'll still 0:00:41.920 --> 0:00:44.960 get called that, right, Like there are birthday countdown calendars 0:00:45.000 --> 0:00:47.600 you can get. It's doesn't have anything to do with Advent, 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:50.920 but the name has become so connected to this idea 0:00:50.960 --> 0:00:54.640 of a countdown calendar. And to talk about Advent calendars, 0:00:54.640 --> 0:00:57.560 which is really what this episode is about, we do 0:00:57.680 --> 0:01:00.840 have to talk about the religious observation of Ada, which 0:01:00.880 --> 0:01:04.120 has historically been less clear cut in execution than you 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:07.840 may imagine. I feel like, especially if someone's not deeply 0:01:07.880 --> 0:01:10.959 religious or if they're not Catholic, they're like, Advent has 0:01:11.000 --> 0:01:15.960 a lot of rules well kind of, we'll see, they 0:01:16.040 --> 0:01:20.839 don't always get they have certainly not always, and even 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:23.360 today they don't always get observed in the same ways. 0:01:23.800 --> 0:01:27.160 And the transition to commercially available products that are more 0:01:27.200 --> 0:01:30.760 about the secular celebration of Christmas than the religious one, 0:01:30.800 --> 0:01:34.560 but still have the same name centers more than anything 0:01:34.640 --> 0:01:38.520 on children and private celebrations, and how that kind of 0:01:38.640 --> 0:01:42.520 changed over to be something else. But the commercial version 0:01:42.560 --> 0:01:45.160 of the Advent calendar, i will say, is a pretty 0:01:45.160 --> 0:01:48.280 recent development. So that's what we're talking about today. So 0:01:48.400 --> 0:01:51.720 the word advent comes from the Latin ad venire to 0:01:51.880 --> 0:01:56.000 come to, and you'll sometimes see the word adventists, which 0:01:56.040 --> 0:02:01.080 means arrival. So from a religious perspective, Advent is part 0:02:01.160 --> 0:02:06.160 of Christian religious preparation for Christmas. Just does a note 0:02:06.160 --> 0:02:10.440 of clarity, Like we were talking about non Orthodox, like 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:16.959 not the Orthodox churches, but like Catholicism, most Protestant denominations. Right, 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:21.960 there are other versions of Advent within those other religions, 0:02:22.000 --> 0:02:25.160 but they they're on a slightly different calendar and they 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:29.080 don't track quite the same way. Right, So the common 0:02:29.200 --> 0:02:33.000 version of Advent that our listeners are probably most familiar 0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:36.840 with runs over four Sundays leading up to Christmas ending 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:39.760 on Christmas Eve. So, for example, the year that we're 0:02:39.760 --> 0:02:43.160 recording this in twenty twenty three, Advent is on the 0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:46.200 shorter side because Christmas Eve is on a Sunday, so 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:50.320 this is from Sunday, December third to Sunday December twenty fourth. 0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:53.679 This period is intended to be a time of reflection 0:02:53.880 --> 0:02:57.600 and preparation for the Christmas holiday, and it's also considered 0:02:57.600 --> 0:03:00.799 a preparation for the second Coming of Christ. In I 0:03:00.800 --> 0:03:02.720 would say in some denominations that was like not a 0:03:02.720 --> 0:03:05.680 big part of it in my upbringing. Yeah, there are 0:03:05.680 --> 0:03:07.920 some Catholic churches that really go in on that in 0:03:07.960 --> 0:03:11.400 my experience, and some that do not. So some churches 0:03:11.480 --> 0:03:15.000 celebrated it more generally as a season to focus on 0:03:15.160 --> 0:03:19.399 and honor Christ. Advent marks the beginning of the liturgical year, 0:03:19.520 --> 0:03:23.280 and depending on the denomination, Advent celebrations might include an 0:03:23.320 --> 0:03:28.400 Advent wreath with those four Sundays represented. Those Sundays usually 0:03:28.440 --> 0:03:31.840 each have their own theme. A lot of times it's hope, peace, 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:35.280 joy and love, and the use of a wreath to 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:39.240 celebrate Advent is tied to German Lutheran Johann Vickeran who 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:42.040 introduced it as a visual countdown to Christmas in his 0:03:42.280 --> 0:03:45.240 church at a home for boys in eighteen thirty eight, 0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:49.000 and we'll come back to that. Advent has been around 0:03:49.080 --> 0:03:52.440 at least since the fourth century, when Bishop Perpetuus of 0:03:52.520 --> 0:03:55.520 Tours set up a pre Christmas fast as part of 0:03:55.560 --> 0:04:00.840 his church's calendar. Similar pre Christmas observations rapidly spread to 0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:03.480 other parts of Europe, and it took different forms then, 0:04:03.600 --> 0:04:06.560 often dependent on location. So there was a version of 0:04:06.600 --> 0:04:10.000 it that lasted for six Sundays. Pope Gregory the First 0:04:10.080 --> 0:04:12.720 also known as Gregory the Great, reduced it to four 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:15.640 Sundays during his papacy that ran from five ninety to 0:04:15.680 --> 0:04:19.200 six oh four. And while there appear to have been 0:04:19.320 --> 0:04:24.160 some efforts to confine Advent just to December, that timeframe 0:04:24.240 --> 0:04:26.919 was not adopted by the Catholic Church right so Advent 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:30.080 can start in November. The longer version may have been 0:04:30.120 --> 0:04:33.640 intended to include Epiphany that would account for that six 0:04:33.680 --> 0:04:36.560 weeks that goes past Christmas and beyond, but that's a 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:39.080 little bit unclear. It doesn't really match up to some 0:04:39.120 --> 0:04:41.760 of the original dates mentioned, but there is a pretty 0:04:41.800 --> 0:04:45.800 popular theory that includes Epiphany, in that early instances of 0:04:45.880 --> 0:04:49.080 Advent may have tied not just to a Christmas countdown, 0:04:49.360 --> 0:04:52.040 but to the preparation for the baptisms that would normally 0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:56.719 happen to coincide with Epiphany. The start of the Advent season, 0:04:56.839 --> 0:05:00.040 going back to Bishop Perpetuus, appears to have initially co 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:02.960 incided with the death of Saint Martin in a fast 0:05:03.000 --> 0:05:05.919 that follows the Feast of Saint Martin that begins in 0:05:06.000 --> 0:05:09.760 early November, So that would have initially included the stretch 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:13.880 from early November to Christmas, not into January, and that 0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:17.920 might account for the sixth Sunday length. By the eighteenth century, 0:05:17.960 --> 0:05:21.760 the idea of Advent had been deeply cemented as an 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:25.440 important part of the religious calendar. There had also been 0:05:25.560 --> 0:05:30.520 more lore and tradition established regarding Advent. In the seventeen 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:34.200 seventy five book The Movable Feasts, Fasts and Other Annual 0:05:34.240 --> 0:05:37.839 Observances of the Catholic Church, the reverend doctor Alban Butler 0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:41.280 wrote this about Advent quote, Advent is a time of 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:44.960 penance and devotion before Christmas, appointed by the Church to 0:05:45.040 --> 0:05:48.000 serve as a preparation to that great solemnity of the 0:05:48.000 --> 0:05:51.800 birth of Christ. Festivals were commanded by God himself and 0:05:51.880 --> 0:05:55.719 the Old Law to commemorate his principle, benefits and mercies, 0:05:56.000 --> 0:05:59.560 that men might be more perfectly instructed in them, bear 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:02.760 them all ways in mind, be always thankful for them, 0:06:03.279 --> 0:06:06.240 and stirred up to dispose themselves to receive the fruits 0:06:06.279 --> 0:06:10.040 of these wonderful mysteries. The festivals of the New Law 0:06:10.120 --> 0:06:12.920 of Gray sought to be celebrated with so much the 0:06:12.960 --> 0:06:17.440 greater preparation and devotion as the mysteries which we commemorate 0:06:17.520 --> 0:06:21.880 transcend those of the Old Law, which, how wonderful of ever, 0:06:22.080 --> 0:06:25.679 were no more than weak types and figures, and empty 0:06:25.720 --> 0:06:29.919 shadows of them. By the time of Butler's writing, the 0:06:30.040 --> 0:06:33.720 rules of advent timing within the Catholic Church were firmly established, 0:06:33.720 --> 0:06:37.880 though he notes that there continued to be differing observations regionally. 0:06:38.920 --> 0:06:42.599 He establishes the four Sundays of Advent as falling from 0:06:42.680 --> 0:06:45.400 the Sunday nearest Saint Andrew's Day on either side of it, 0:06:45.520 --> 0:06:48.400 so even if the Sunday was before it or after it, 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:51.679 whichever was closest, that's where it started. He also notes 0:06:51.720 --> 0:06:54.080 in the text that a forty day Advent was in 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:56.839 place at one time as a sort of parallel to Lent, 0:06:57.279 --> 0:06:59.719 and was established in five eighty one at the Council 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:03.440 of Mine. That version was forty days, no matter how 0:07:03.440 --> 0:07:07.159 many Sundays were involved. It was also sometimes called Saint 0:07:07.200 --> 0:07:11.040 Martin's Lent rather than Advent. Butler also notes that in 0:07:11.120 --> 0:07:14.280 Milan in the late eighteenth century, the six week Advent, 0:07:14.320 --> 0:07:17.520 which includes six Sundays, was still being observed when he 0:07:17.560 --> 0:07:22.720 wrote this so late eighteenth century. According to Butler's research, 0:07:22.880 --> 0:07:26.080 in the tenth century, Pope Nicholas the First also endorsed 0:07:26.120 --> 0:07:30.040 the four sunday version rather than forty days. Up to 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:33.760 that point, monks in England and Ireland particularly had continued 0:07:33.800 --> 0:07:36.440 to observe the forty day rule, fasting most of the 0:07:36.560 --> 0:07:40.520 day and then eating one meal in the evening. Butler 0:07:40.560 --> 0:07:44.920 concludes his discussion of the varying advent calendar dates by saying, quote, 0:07:45.120 --> 0:07:48.280 almost the whole Latin Church, in conformity with the Roman 0:07:48.640 --> 0:07:51.640 has long since reduced advent to the uniform rule of 0:07:51.720 --> 0:07:54.920 four weeks, or at least four sundays beginning about the 0:07:55.000 --> 0:07:57.560 end of November, from the Sunday nearest the Feast of 0:07:57.600 --> 0:08:01.320 Saint Andrew. So we just mentioned fasting, and even the 0:08:01.400 --> 0:08:04.400 rules around that have been wildly different depending on the 0:08:04.400 --> 0:08:07.960 time and place. That Council of macall in five eighty 0:08:08.040 --> 0:08:11.760 one that we mentioned laid out a proposed fasting schedule 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:14.560 of three days a week Monday, Wednesday and Friday for 0:08:14.640 --> 0:08:18.000 the whole forty days, and even on days that weren't 0:08:18.080 --> 0:08:22.480 fasting days, meat was to be avoided. Some churches encouraged 0:08:22.520 --> 0:08:27.080 both fasting and quote abstinence from cohabitation in the married state. 0:08:28.160 --> 0:08:32.040 Some observances of Advent focused more on spiritual preparation for 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:35.199 the Christmas holiday and its meaning within the church, rather 0:08:35.360 --> 0:08:40.920 than requiring physical observation through fasting or abstinence from sexual intercourse. 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:45.320 Even in Butler's book, he notes that quote in monastic orders, 0:08:45.360 --> 0:08:48.120 the fast of Advent has always been looked upon us 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:52.360 less rigorous and less solemn than that of Lent. The 0:08:52.400 --> 0:08:55.520 bottom line is that even though there are church recognized 0:08:55.600 --> 0:08:59.800 dates and practices of Advent, even within any religious denomination, 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:03.920 different areas or even individual churches can still define for 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:07.120 themselves a lot of the specifics about how this period 0:09:07.240 --> 0:09:12.240 is observed and celebrated. So this is all religious history 0:09:12.280 --> 0:09:14.880 obviously that we've been talking about, but Advent is often 0:09:14.920 --> 0:09:18.920 marked by secular advent calendars, So how did that start. 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:20.880 We're going to talk about it right after we take 0:09:20.880 --> 0:09:33.480 a quick sponsor break. We noted in the discussion of 0:09:33.600 --> 0:09:36.720 religious observations of Advent that a wreath was introduced into 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:39.199 churches as a way to visually mark the progression of 0:09:39.240 --> 0:09:43.160 the season and the approach of Christmas, and in Germany 0:09:43.240 --> 0:09:45.560 in the mid nineteenth century, this was one of several 0:09:45.600 --> 0:09:49.160 practices that shifted the Advent to include ways to track 0:09:49.240 --> 0:09:53.280 the countdown to Christmas at home for children. So sometimes 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:56.120 marking the days that countdown to Christmas was really simple, 0:09:56.280 --> 0:09:59.240 like families just marking the day with chalk. I read 0:09:59.280 --> 0:10:02.520 different accounts it said like in some families, like they 0:10:02.559 --> 0:10:05.520 would put on the door, for example, like all of 0:10:05.559 --> 0:10:07.800 the chalk mark for all of the days, and they 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:09.880 would erase one each day, and in others they would 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:12.080 add one each day. Like it was a very personal 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:14.319 way of marking it, and everybody had their own way 0:10:14.320 --> 0:10:18.400 of doing it. It also started to include small physical 0:10:18.520 --> 0:10:21.840 daily items, often paired with Bible verses to combine the 0:10:21.880 --> 0:10:25.600 religious observation with this idea of excitement of a visit 0:10:25.600 --> 0:10:29.720 from Santa and also teach kids about calendars. This started 0:10:29.800 --> 0:10:32.560 to shift from lining up with the moving target of 0:10:32.640 --> 0:10:36.000 Advent dates that are like the four Sundays, say and Andrews, 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:38.840 to just being December first to twenty fourth. And that 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:42.120 makes sense, particularly when you consider that these work countdowns 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:45.080 that focused on children. Right, it's easy to track Advent 0:10:45.360 --> 0:10:47.280 when the first day of it lines up with December 0:10:47.280 --> 0:10:50.000 first and so on, but it would surely be harder 0:10:50.040 --> 0:10:52.400 for little kids in particular to have the calendar say 0:10:52.440 --> 0:10:56.040 November twenty ninth, for example, when the Advent calendar says two. 0:10:56.559 --> 0:10:59.600 So for example, a family might be setting up a 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:01.960 line of candles on their mantle to be lit in 0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:04.839 a succession as the twenty four days from December first 0:11:05.120 --> 0:11:09.679 to December twenty fourth unfolded. The Advent wreath, as we noted, 0:11:09.760 --> 0:11:13.040 is credited to Johann Heinrich Vickern in the eighteen thirties, 0:11:13.520 --> 0:11:16.480 and this was adapted for home use in Germany in 0:11:16.520 --> 0:11:18.960 a way very similar to the way that we use 0:11:19.040 --> 0:11:23.480 Advent calendars. And in this countdown, each day a prayer 0:11:23.679 --> 0:11:26.240 or a Bible verse was read and then a candle 0:11:26.480 --> 0:11:29.520 was lit on the wreath. If you haven't seen one 0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:31.640 of these before and you're like, how would this work? 0:11:32.520 --> 0:11:35.360 The wreath is flat on a surface or hung from 0:11:35.400 --> 0:11:38.760 a chandelier. It's not vertically on the wall or a 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:42.720 door or something like that. Versions of the Advent wreath 0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:46.120 could vary from the four candle one that mimicked those 0:11:46.160 --> 0:11:48.600 that might appear in churches all the way to twenty 0:11:48.640 --> 0:11:52.200 four day ones that mark December one through twenty fourth. 0:11:52.920 --> 0:11:56.800 These could be decorated with ornaments, but the focus remained 0:11:56.880 --> 0:12:00.920 on the religious verses and using the light the candles 0:12:00.960 --> 0:12:04.240 to create kind of a halo. So the Advent wreath 0:12:04.360 --> 0:12:08.080 is associated with Protestant traditions, and this too offers a 0:12:08.120 --> 0:12:11.280 possible insight into why they count down from December first 0:12:11.920 --> 0:12:15.120 instead of the religious calendar of Advent as it related 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:17.959 to the Catholic Church. They simply were not governed by 0:12:17.960 --> 0:12:21.880 the Catholic Church's rules of when Advents started, since most 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:24.480 of the Protestant versions of countdowns were part of family 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:27.920 traditions and celebrations rather than part of any more formalized 0:12:28.000 --> 0:12:30.400 church observants, they were also just free to do what 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:32.480 they wished and what made sense for their family in 0:12:32.520 --> 0:12:38.360 this regard. Another Protestant originated countdown convention is the Advent tree. 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:41.600 This is a practice that began in eighteen forty six 0:12:41.679 --> 0:12:45.040 in Duisburg, Germany. And once again this was a tradition 0:12:45.160 --> 0:12:48.120 that started in a home for wayward boys as both 0:12:48.120 --> 0:12:52.240 a Christmas countdown and in didactic religious practice. So a 0:12:52.320 --> 0:12:55.160 small fur tree was planted in a pot in the 0:12:55.240 --> 0:12:58.040 home at the beginning of Advent, and then every day 0:12:58.080 --> 0:13:00.160 a Bible Verse was read aloud by one of the 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:03.000 boys with the intention that they would all memorize it 0:13:03.120 --> 0:13:06.120 that night. And then the next day a candle was 0:13:06.200 --> 0:13:09.240 lit on the tree and another Bible verse was read 0:13:09.280 --> 0:13:12.959 to be memorized, and this daily candle and Bible verse 0:13:13.000 --> 0:13:16.280 practice continued every day of Advent until the tree was 0:13:16.320 --> 0:13:20.120 decorated and Advent ended. This practice was picked up in 0:13:20.160 --> 0:13:23.000 private homes as well, and a business grew out of 0:13:23.080 --> 0:13:27.320 it as printers started producing heavy paper or cardboard ornaments 0:13:27.360 --> 0:13:31.160 that had Bible verses printed on them and even stars 0:13:31.240 --> 0:13:34.439 to top the tree. So to be clear, this Advent 0:13:34.520 --> 0:13:38.800 tree was not something used instead of a Christmas tree. 0:13:39.440 --> 0:13:41.920 A lot of times the two would be alongside one 0:13:41.920 --> 0:13:46.800 another as kind of a commingling of Christmas decora and traditions. Yeah, 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:50.160 one rite up that I read kind of made it 0:13:50.200 --> 0:13:52.600 sound like you did the Advent tree and then when 0:13:52.600 --> 0:13:55.200 it was done, you carried that one into the room 0:13:55.240 --> 0:13:57.080 with the Christmas tree. But I wasn't sure if that 0:13:57.200 --> 0:14:01.439 was a translation issue. It seems like it would be 0:14:01.480 --> 0:14:02.800 a pain in the neck to move a tree with 0:14:02.840 --> 0:14:04.760 candles on it, so I think that is what the 0:14:04.800 --> 0:14:09.559 problem was. Austria developed its own variation on the Advent calendar, 0:14:09.600 --> 0:14:13.400 called a Heaven Ladder. This version walked children down the 0:14:13.480 --> 0:14:15.800 ladder as the days progressed, so each wrung was a 0:14:15.880 --> 0:14:18.360 day and it was intended to represent the way that 0:14:18.400 --> 0:14:22.200 God descends to earth to be present with humanity on Christmas. 0:14:22.720 --> 0:14:26.680 There were also candles that could be used in some celebrations, 0:14:26.680 --> 0:14:29.840 intended to be burned only a specific amount each day. 0:14:30.320 --> 0:14:33.360 That was in both Austria and other European countries. There 0:14:33.360 --> 0:14:36.400 are also, we should say, a lot of different ways 0:14:36.440 --> 0:14:38.440 to count down Advent that we're not even touching on 0:14:38.640 --> 0:14:41.560 because some of them probably aren't even documented as personal 0:14:41.560 --> 0:14:45.640 ways to do it. The German Christmas Museum describes Advent 0:14:45.720 --> 0:14:49.720 calendars this way, which Holly found delightful. Quote. Advent or 0:14:49.800 --> 0:14:53.840 Christmas calendars are tools devised by adults for children to 0:14:53.920 --> 0:14:57.520 make the remaining time until Christmas Eve countable and to 0:14:57.600 --> 0:15:01.920 stir up anticipation. Their English translation of their page on 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:06.920 Advent calendars, so Holly is hopeful that the German language 0:15:07.040 --> 0:15:11.000 version is just as charming. I don't know why. It's 0:15:11.040 --> 0:15:14.320 like it's a tool for kids to make them happy, 0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:19.240 keep them occupied. We noted that the days were sometimes 0:15:19.240 --> 0:15:22.520 marked really simply in advent countdowns, like with chalk. But 0:15:22.640 --> 0:15:25.920 another form of simple advent calendar was mentioned in an 0:15:25.920 --> 0:15:29.440 eighteen fifty one children's book about Christmas by German social 0:15:29.480 --> 0:15:33.080 activist Elise Averdick. In that book, a little girl in 0:15:33.120 --> 0:15:35.560 her mother marked the days by hanging pictures on the 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:38.040 wall related to the story of Christmas, and a lot 0:15:38.040 --> 0:15:42.080 of homes did this for decades. Advent calendars for home 0:15:42.200 --> 0:15:44.960 use were also homemade. I don't want to make it 0:15:44.960 --> 0:15:46.800 sound like that's over. There are still people that make 0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:50.600 homemade Advent calendars, and so they can take whatever form 0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:54.760 the creativity of the adults involved desire. The first printed 0:15:54.840 --> 0:15:58.280 Advent calendar was made in nineteen hundred in Munich and 0:15:58.320 --> 0:16:00.560 told the story of Santa Claus. But this is a 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:04.119 very small run. Two years later there was a commercially 0:16:04.120 --> 0:16:07.960 made Advent clock. This was not really a clock, but 0:16:08.040 --> 0:16:10.800 it was two printouts of clockfaces in which each of 0:16:10.840 --> 0:16:14.200 the twelve hours on the first image corresponded to December 0:16:14.280 --> 0:16:17.200 one through twelve, and the twelve hours on the second 0:16:17.240 --> 0:16:23.120 image corresponded to the days thirteen to twenty four. So 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:25.960 each day the hands of the clock this paper clock 0:16:26.000 --> 0:16:29.880 could be advanced as Christmas could grew nearer. Because that 0:16:30.000 --> 0:16:34.200 nineteen hundred Santa Claus Advent calendar appears not to have 0:16:34.240 --> 0:16:38.160 been widely released, there's another point at which the Advent 0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:41.760 calendar is often said to have been invented. In the 0:16:41.800 --> 0:16:45.600 early nineteen hundreds, a German printer named Gerhard Lang is 0:16:45.760 --> 0:16:50.360 credited with printing the first commercial Advent calendar. According to 0:16:50.400 --> 0:16:53.640 the legend, this was inspired by his mother's practice of 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:57.440 sewing twenty four cookies into a box lid for him 0:16:57.480 --> 0:17:00.360 every year as a child, to be opened day by 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:04.679 day as Christmas approached. And if you're wondering how cookies 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:08.480 would survive twenty four days involved in this countdown, these 0:17:08.520 --> 0:17:12.320 were allegedly Vibela cookies, which are more like biscuits that 0:17:12.359 --> 0:17:16.520 share characteristics with meringues or the cookie part of a mackerel, 0:17:17.440 --> 0:17:20.560 so they were probably okay for a few weeks. The 0:17:20.640 --> 0:17:26.240 last few probably chewier then that would be freshly made. 0:17:26.920 --> 0:17:31.399 Because Lang's not only made a widely distributed calendar, he 0:17:31.520 --> 0:17:35.159 continued to print new ones for decades. His name is 0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:39.320 the one that's most associated with the beginnings of advent 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:43.879 calendars as a consumer product. There is not a load 0:17:44.240 --> 0:17:48.200 of readily available information about Gerhard Lang. If you search 0:17:48.240 --> 0:17:50.640 his name, a few examples come up over and over, 0:17:50.720 --> 0:17:53.120 none of which are him. One is a printer from 0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:55.600 Frankfurt who was born in nineteen twenty one and is 0:17:55.680 --> 0:17:58.200 linked to the beginning of font design, which is pretty fascinating. 0:17:58.800 --> 0:18:01.359 Another was a botanist born in nineteen twenty four, and 0:18:01.440 --> 0:18:04.240 yet another was a brewer and Democratic State committeeman who 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:06.480 lived in Buffalo, New York. None of those are the 0:18:06.520 --> 0:18:09.960 Advent calendar guy. So we don't know much about the 0:18:10.000 --> 0:18:13.160 life of Gerhard Lang, who is sometimes called the inventor 0:18:13.160 --> 0:18:15.720 of the advent calendar. But what we do know is 0:18:15.720 --> 0:18:18.280 that he eventually was made a partner in a publishing 0:18:18.320 --> 0:18:22.800 company called Reichold and Lang. The date that Lang published 0:18:22.840 --> 0:18:25.719 his first calendar is different depending on what source you 0:18:25.760 --> 0:18:28.800 look at. Some say nineteen oh eight, others placed the 0:18:28.880 --> 0:18:32.280 date earlier in the nineteen hundreds. There's a children's book 0:18:32.280 --> 0:18:34.840 called Waiting for Christmas from two thousand and six that 0:18:34.960 --> 0:18:38.640 shares an imagined version of Gerhard Lang as a child 0:18:38.720 --> 0:18:42.600 learning about Advent through his mother's cookie countdown. The book 0:18:42.640 --> 0:18:46.560 says the cookies were Lebkitchen, So who knows that book 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:49.560 included the nineteen oh eight date, and it might be 0:18:49.600 --> 0:18:54.240 where other recent accounts picked that year up. Lang's collaborator 0:18:54.359 --> 0:18:57.560 on several of these Advent calendars was an illustrator named 0:18:57.640 --> 0:19:01.080 Richard Ernst Kepler. You can find some of Kepler's early 0:19:01.119 --> 0:19:04.639 Advent calendar illustrations for Laying online, and one of these 0:19:04.720 --> 0:19:06.520 is from nineteen oh three, and it's titled in the 0:19:06.600 --> 0:19:09.080 Land of the Christ Child, and it features in an 0:19:09.160 --> 0:19:12.440 array of scenes that all depict children, either representing moments 0:19:12.440 --> 0:19:15.640 from the life of Christ or showing some imagery that's 0:19:15.720 --> 0:19:19.080 commonly associated with the more secular aspects of Christmas, like 0:19:19.200 --> 0:19:23.760 nutcrackers and dolls and other toys. These calendars started out 0:19:23.800 --> 0:19:26.560 just as paper calendars that had a degree of activity 0:19:26.600 --> 0:19:29.160 to them. You could open a little window and see 0:19:29.160 --> 0:19:32.159 a Bible verse, or you could paste an image onto 0:19:32.200 --> 0:19:36.560 the square that noted the day. The original edition of 0:19:36.680 --> 0:19:38.960 In the Land of the Christ Child, for example, wasn't 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:41.359 even sold on its own, It was an insert in 0:19:41.400 --> 0:19:46.160 a newspaper. It was the Stuttgarter new Tagblat. There were 0:19:46.200 --> 0:19:48.560 two sheets that made up the calendar, and then after 0:19:48.600 --> 0:19:51.320 reading the Bible verse framed in each square of the calendar, 0:19:51.440 --> 0:19:54.520 kids could cut out the corresponding art to paste over it. 0:19:55.200 --> 0:19:58.760 The National Museum of Germany recognizes nineteen oh three as 0:19:58.800 --> 0:20:01.800 the year of the first advent calendar because of that 0:20:01.960 --> 0:20:06.600 newspaper distributed start of Lang's long career, making them Another 0:20:06.680 --> 0:20:09.479 reason the nineteen oh eight origin date comes up is 0:20:09.480 --> 0:20:13.680 because although Lang started before that date, it wasn't until 0:20:13.760 --> 0:20:16.840 nineteen oh eight that he was actually producing advent calendars 0:20:16.840 --> 0:20:21.159 that sold just on their own outside of some other publication. 0:20:22.040 --> 0:20:25.960 Over time, the Lang Advent calendars became more complex and 0:20:25.960 --> 0:20:27.760 they started to look a little more like the ones 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:31.160 that you could purchase today. If your family has one 0:20:31.160 --> 0:20:33.520 of those calendars, that's like part of the family tradition 0:20:33.600 --> 0:20:35.640 that hangs on a door with pockets or some other 0:20:35.680 --> 0:20:39.000 interactive feature. Those door calendars are an idea that came 0:20:39.040 --> 0:20:43.200 from Lang. Similarly, the first Advent calendar with a chocolate 0:20:43.240 --> 0:20:45.960 behind each door is credited to him, although his first 0:20:45.960 --> 0:20:48.639 one did not have the chocolate included. It was just 0:20:48.680 --> 0:20:50.480 set up so that parents could fill it up for 0:20:50.520 --> 0:20:53.560 their kids to then have them. This is a good 0:20:53.600 --> 0:20:56.280 way to get around the idea to sidestep the problem 0:20:56.320 --> 0:20:59.600 of chocolate getting stale on shelves because it goes out 0:20:59.600 --> 0:21:04.440 onto the show shelf sometime in July. One of his calendars, 0:21:04.480 --> 0:21:07.280 which sounds very quaint, was a small cardboard house, and 0:21:07.400 --> 0:21:10.280 each day of the Advent countdown, one of the windows 0:21:10.320 --> 0:21:12.360 would be opened, and then when all of the windows 0:21:12.359 --> 0:21:14.720 and finally on the last day, the door was open. 0:21:15.160 --> 0:21:17.680 The calendar had become a lantern and it was meant 0:21:17.680 --> 0:21:21.320 to put a candle inside. He created the first Advent 0:21:21.400 --> 0:21:25.560 calendar for blind consumers in nineteen thirty and by the 0:21:25.640 --> 0:21:29.560 nineteen thirties Advent calendars had become very popular in Germany 0:21:29.600 --> 0:21:31.400 and they were a pretty standard part of a lot 0:21:31.440 --> 0:21:35.280 of families holiday traditions. They had also become pretty popular 0:21:35.280 --> 0:21:37.760 by that time in Great Britain because Lang had started 0:21:37.760 --> 0:21:40.920 shipping them there in the years following World War One. 0:21:41.160 --> 0:21:44.000 During the time that Lang was making calendars, the Sank 0:21:44.080 --> 0:21:49.040 Johannis Printing Company also started making Advent calendars. Sank Johannas 0:21:49.040 --> 0:21:52.560 started printing in the nineteen twenties and sometimes is credited 0:21:52.600 --> 0:21:57.359 with the openable doors on Advent calendars, although Lang also 0:21:57.640 --> 0:21:59.800 gets the credit for that in a lot of sources. Yeah, 0:22:00.080 --> 0:22:03.640 it's hard to pin down. World War two, though, put 0:22:03.640 --> 0:22:06.080 the brakes on the printing of Advent calendars, as it 0:22:06.119 --> 0:22:08.440 put their Greeks on a lot of things. Not long 0:22:08.480 --> 0:22:11.960 after the war started, the rising prices on paper products 0:22:12.000 --> 0:22:14.840 meant that reich Holden Lang just could not stay in business, 0:22:15.480 --> 0:22:19.400 and then paper goods were also rationed. Then no illustrated 0:22:19.440 --> 0:22:22.119 calendars were allowed to be printed under the Third Reich, 0:22:22.200 --> 0:22:24.840 at least not any that were not Nazi produced and 0:22:24.960 --> 0:22:29.520 intended to indoctrinate children in a Nazi ideology. New Advent 0:22:29.600 --> 0:22:32.760 calendars just simply could not exist during World War II. 0:22:33.560 --> 0:22:36.520 But when the war ended, the Advent calendar was one 0:22:36.520 --> 0:22:40.160 of those things that pretty quickly bounced back. The companies 0:22:40.200 --> 0:22:42.520 that had survived the war were able to get back 0:22:42.520 --> 0:22:46.800 into printing production relatively quickly, and this also was probably 0:22:46.800 --> 0:22:50.240 motivated by a desire to recapture a sliver of normalcy 0:22:50.359 --> 0:22:53.320 for children in Germany post war, and there were Advent 0:22:53.359 --> 0:22:58.200 calendars available by Christmas nineteen forty five. US soldiers stationed 0:22:58.200 --> 0:23:00.560 in Europe bought them and then brought them home when 0:23:00.600 --> 0:23:03.800 their tours were over. One of the major sellers of 0:23:03.840 --> 0:23:07.240 Advent calendars after the war was Richard Selmer, who started 0:23:07.280 --> 0:23:11.840 producing Advent calendars in nineteen forty five. Selmer's first calendar 0:23:11.920 --> 0:23:15.320 was called The Little Town, sometimes also appearing in print 0:23:15.359 --> 0:23:18.440 as the Little Christmas Town, and it featured a serene 0:23:18.560 --> 0:23:21.080 looking village in the winter kind of a balm. After 0:23:21.119 --> 0:23:24.640