Advent wreath
AdventskranzCustomFrom 1839 (Rauhes Haus, Hamburg); fir…
The Advent wreath began in 1839 at the Rauhes Haus, a children's home in Hamburg, and anyone counting down the Sundays to Christmas in a German home now meets its four-candle descendant. The first wreath worked differently, with a candle for every day of Advent, and the sources disagree on how many it carried.
Visiting with care
- In a church the wreath's candles are lit as part of the Sunday service. Watch from your seat and leave the photographs until the service ends.
Johann Hinrich Wichern ran the Rauhes Haus in Hamburg-Horn for poor children, and in 1839 he hung a wreath of candles in its prayer hall so they could see Christmas coming. The Rauhes Haus describes a large white candle for each Sunday and a small red one for each weekday up to Christmas Eve. Because Advent varies in length, the count changes every year, and the house's wreath carried 22 candles in 2023. Advent 2026 begins on 29 November, so a wreath on Wichern's pattern needs four white candles and 22 red ones this year by our count.
The German Wikipedia, citing NDR and the Bundestag, gives a fixed number: a cart wheel with four white candles and 20 red ones, and other retellings say 23 or 24. One account that cites the Rauhes Haus traces the 23 to a diary entry about a different year. A poem often credited to Matthias Claudius gets used to argue that the wreath is older than Wichern, and it was written by his great-grandson Hermann Claudius.
Fir greenery came onto the wreath around 1860. The first wreath in a Catholic church hung in Cologne in 1925, Munich followed in 1930, and many Catholic families took it up only after the Second World War. The four-candle form grew out of Wichern's for practical reasons. Under the Nazi regime the party tried to swap it for a solstice wreath with sun-wheel motifs and candles for the four seasons.
Candle colours are each household's or parish's choice. Red candles are the Protestant starting point, and Erzgebirge wreaths traditionally carry red only. Many Catholic homes and churches use three violet candles and one rose candle, which is lit on Gaudete Sunday, the third Sunday of Advent, on 13 December in 2026. The German Wikipedia records four violet candles in Norway and a white first candle with three violet in Sweden.
Worth knowing
- The Rauhes Haus still keeps a wreath on Wichern's pattern, and pupils of its Wichern school hold a short morning devotion around it every Advent morning. Treat it as a school's prayer time if you visit Hamburg.
- Light the first candle on the first Sunday of Advent, which falls on 29 November 2026, and add one each Sunday after.
Quick answers about Advent wreath
Who invented the Advent wreath?
Johann Hinrich Wichern made the first documented Advent wreath in 1839 at the Rauhes Haus children's home in Hamburg. It held a large white candle for each Sunday of Advent and a small red one for each weekday until Christmas Eve.
How many candles were on the first Advent wreath?
The sources disagree. The Rauhes Haus describes a candle for every day of Advent, so the number changes with the calendar, and popular accounts give fixed figures of 23 or 24.
What colour should Advent wreath candles be?
There is no single rule. Protestant wreaths started with red candles, and many Catholic households use three violet candles and one rose candle for the third Sunday of Advent.
How should you behave at Advent wreath?
At Advent wreath: In a church the wreath's candles are lit as part of the Sunday service. Watch from your seat and leave the photographs until the service ends.