Just in time for the Christmas season… 
Growing up, the four Sundays of Advent were important occasions – the four Sundays before Christmas. Sometimes they would already begin in late November.
A special wreath with four candles was set up, and on the first Sunday, one candle would be lit. In later years I would hear that each candle represented a certain aspect of the original Christmas story, although depending on which tradition was in place, the meanings varied. But back then, there was no particular significance of one candle over the other. The second week, two candles would be lit, and so on. The more candles that were on the wreath, the shorter the time until Christmas would be there.
And by the time all four candles were lit, Christmas would be just around the corner. Happy times!
Advent, Advent. Advent, Advent.
Ein Lichtlein brennt. One small light is burning.
Erst eins, dann zwei, First one, then two,
dann drei, dann vier Then three, then four.
Dann steht das Christkind vor der Tür. And then the Christchild is at the door.
It was not Santa Claus who brought Christmas gifts, but the Christ Child, somehow. Didn’t quite get how that worked. Santa Claus wasn’t part of the story at all, although he was not a stranger to me. I did learn about him in school, and he put in an appearance in every shopping mall in town. But I always knew that he was not an official part of Christmas.
However a distant relative of his, St Nicholas, did put in an appearance, but already much earlier than Christmas itself. On the night of the fifth of December. And he was quite real.
So it was a matter of putting out your polished shoes your polished shoes before going to bed, and in the morning, if you had been a good child, there would be candy and chocolate in one of your shoes on the morning of December 6. If you had not been good, there would be a lump of coal in it, or a stone, or something like that. And so either I was always well-behaved, or else St Nicholas closed an eye and gave me the benefit of the doubt. There was never any rock or coal in my shoes.
While some of those traditions were as nebulous as they were exciting, Christmas carols were definitely part of growing up, as well as some well-loved poems. Illustrated here are some of my favourites.
Originally all the medley images were posted at once. However that makes for a lot of viewing in one go. So the original collection has been split into four separate posts, one for each of the Sundays of Advent for this year. Hope you enjoy.
Happy Advent!
to be continued at the next post
◆ Originally published December 2007 ◆
photojourneying 