The Advent wreath

An Advent wreath is a ring of evergreen branches with four candles, and on each of the four Sundays before Christmas one more candle is lit until all of them burn together. The custom is not an ancient one. A Protestant theologian in Hamburg came up with it in 1839, and Catholic churches only adopted it in the 20th century. This guide explains where the Advent wreath comes from, what its shape and candles mean, which colors are used, when the Advent Sundays fall in 2026 and how to keep the candles safe.

Where the Advent wreath comes from

The story begins at the Rauhe Haus, a home for poor children that the theologian Johann Hinrich Wichern (1808 to 1881) founded in 1833 in Horn, then a village outside Hamburg. In Advent 1839 Wichern set up a wooden ring about the size of a wagon wheel in the home's prayer hall. It held a candle for every day until Christmas Eve: large white ones for the Sundays and small red ones for the weekdays. Each day one more candle was lit, so the waiting time before Christmas became something they could count and see.

Because Advent does not have the same length every year, the number of candles on this first wreath changes with the calendar. The Rauhe Haus says its wreath carried 22 candles in 2023. According to the Protestant portal evangelisch.de, fir branches and white ribbons were only added from 1860. The foundation still keeps the original style of wreath, with a light for every day, in its facilities in Hamburg.

From wagon wheel to four candles

Wichern was well known far beyond Hamburg; he is regarded as the founder of the Inner Mission, the forerunner of today's Protestant welfare organization Diakonie. Starting in northern Germany, his idea gradually spread through the Protestant church and then into private homes. For use at home the wreath became much smaller, and people left out the weekday candles, keeping only the four for the Sundays. That is the Advent wreath most people know today.

The Catholic Church took it over late. Vatican News dates the first Advent wreath in a Catholic church to Cologne in 1925, and in Austria the custom only became common after 1945. So when you see a large Advent wreath hanging in a village church in Upper Bavaria, you are looking at a custom that came from the Protestant north. More stories of customs that traveled are collected on our German page Advent im Faktencheck.

Advent wreath meaning: circle, green and light

The meaning of the Advent wreath can be read from its three parts.

• The circle has no beginning and no end. Wreaths have long stood for eternity and for victory; in antiquity a laurel wreath was a sign of triumph, and the Austrian Catholic portal katholisch.at notes that Wichern may have been thinking of Christ's victory over sin and death.
• The evergreen branches of fir or spruce stay green in winter. Vatican News describes them as a symbol of life, hope and community.
• The candles point to the light that, in Christian belief, comes into the world with the birth of Jesus at Christmas. Each week the wreath grows a little brighter as the feast comes closer.

Advent wreath candles: which colors and why

Two color traditions are common in Germany. Wichern's original was red and white, and Protestant churches in Germany typically use red candles and red ribbons. Catholic regions often follow the colors of the liturgy instead. Violet is the color of Advent, which the church traditionally regards, like Lent, as a time of penance and conversion. The third candle is then pink, or rose. It belongs to the third Sunday of Advent, called Gaudete after the Latin first word of that Sunday's opening verse, which means "rejoice". Pink expresses that call to joy. In Bavaria and Austria, katholisch.at writes, wreaths are traditionally decorated in these liturgical colors, with three purple candles and one pink one. According to evangelisch.de the violet version is also widespread in Norway and Sweden.

When is Advent in 2026?

Advent starts on the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day. That puts the first Sunday of Advent between 27 November and 3 December, and the season lasts between 22 and 28 days. The first Sunday of Advent also opens the new church year. In 2026 Christmas Day falls on a Friday, so the first Sunday of Advent is 29 November and the fourth is 20 December. The second Sunday of Advent, 6 December, is also St. Nicholas Day.

If you wanted to count the Wichern way this year, you would need 26 lights, because there are 26 days from 29 November to 24 December: four white candles for the Sundays and 22 red ones for the weekdays. evangelisch.de did the same arithmetic for 2009, when Advent also began on 29 November.

The Advent wreath in Bavaria and Munich

In Bavaria the wreath has its own moment in church: the blessing. Catholic parishes in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising bless the wreaths that people bring from home, on the eve of the first Sunday of Advent or at Mass that morning; the service schedule of one parish group lists exactly that for 2024. In Munich's cathedral, the Frauenkirche, the cathedral parish's calendar lists solemn Vespers with the blessing of Advent wreaths on Saturday, 28 November 2026, at 6 p.m. The service is also streamed online.

The Advent calendar has a Munich connection: according to katholisch.at, the Munich publisher Gerhard Lang printed the first Advent calendar with little doors in 1908. Both share the same idea of making the wait for Christmas visible. Other Munich Advent customs, from tower music to the Barbara branches cut on 4 December, are described on our German pages Adventsbrauchtum in München and Barbarazweig. For the bigger picture, see our guide to German Christmas traditions and the Munich Christmas markets.

Advent wreath safety tips

Dry branches and open flames are a risky mix, and a wreath often stands for four weeks before all four candles burn on the last Sunday. The U.S. Fire Administration counts an average of 20 reported home candle fires a day in the United States. Its advice, together with that of the fire department in the German city of Dortmund, fits any Advent wreath:

• Never leave burning candles unattended, and blow them out when you leave the room or go to bed.
• Put the wreath on a firm surface that cannot burn and keep candles at least 12 inches (30 centimeters) from anything that can catch fire.
• Fix the candles in stable holders that do not burn, and make sure no ribbons or twigs can reach the flame.
• Remove dry branches regularly and replace candles before they burn down too far.
• Consider battery-operated flameless candles, especially in homes with small children or pets.

More Bavarian customs through the year are listed under all topics.