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Advent
Advent
Also called: Adviento (Spanish), Avent (French), Der Advent (German)
Four Sundays before Christmas (begins late Nov/early Dec)
All Christians
For four weeks before Christmas, millions of Christians light a new candle each Sunday and count down to the big day. Advent is the start of the church year in many traditions — a season of waiting, hope, and getting ready for Christmas.
Families use Advent calendars, churches hang purple or blue decorations, and carol services build through December. If you want a quiet place to reflect before the Christmas rush, Eden lists dozens of UK retreat centres that run special Advent programmes.
At a glance
- Type
- liturgical season
- Date type
- Semi-fixed
- Regions
- Global
- Themes
- Birth of Christ, Penitence & Fasting, End Times & Hope
- Liturgical colour
- Purple/Violet, Blue (Anglican, Methodist, some Lutheran)
Common questions
Advent is observed on Four Sundays before Christmas (begins late Nov/early Dec). Moveable feasts shift each year; fixed feasts stay on the same calendar date.
A season of preparation, expectation, and watchfulness lasting four Sundays before Christmas. Advent marks the beginning of the church calendar year in Western Christianity. The tradition of lighting Advent candles — one for each Sunday — is widely observed across Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican, and Methodist churches. In its dual focus, Advent looks back to Christ's first coming at Christmas and forward
It is associated with All Christians. It falls in the Advent season of the liturgical year.
