Christmas Carols and Their Stories
Puzzle 75 · Christmas Customs and Traditions · Page 105 in print
The Advent Wreath
Wichern’s first Advent wreath was wound with white ribbons and set with fir cones. Fir boughs first decked the prayer hall in 1851, and the wreath itself was not trimmed with greenery until 1860.
Jump to a word
The words
Advent Sunday
The Sundays on which the modern wreath’s four candles are lit.
City Hall
Hamburg City Hall, which displays a Wichern wreath.
Fir Branches
Greenery added to the wreath from 1860.
Hamburg
City where the first Advent wreath was lit.
Prayer Room
The hall of the Rauhes Haus where the wreath first hung.
Protestant
The churches where the wreath first spread.
Hamburg Tourismus (opens a new tab) · evangelisch.de (opens a new tab)
Rauhes Haus
The Hamburg children’s home where the first wreath hung in 1839.
Red Candles
Small candles for the ordinary days of Advent on Wichern’s wreath.
Hamburg Tourismus (opens a new tab) · Sonntagsblatt (opens a new tab)
Reichstag
The Berlin parliament building where a Wichern wreath hangs each Advent.
Spruce
Needles used with fir in the modern wreath.
Stollen
The Christmas loaf eaten on Advent Sundays.
Wagon Wheel
The size of Wichern’s wooden wreath.
White Candles
Large candles for the Sundays of Advent on Wichern’s wreath.
Hamburg Tourismus (opens a new tab) · Sonntagsblatt (opens a new tab)
White Ribbons
Ribbons added to the wreath from 1860.
Wichern
Johann Hinrich Wichern, Hamburg theologian who made the first Advent wreath.
Hamburg Tourismus (opens a new tab) · evangelisch.de (opens a new tab)
Sources
- Hamburg Tourismus (hamburg-travel.com), guest article ‘The Advent wreath – Four candles conquer the world’ by Bjoern Smertka, Hamburg Historical Museums Foundation (from Hamburg History Live 02/2017)hamburg-travel.com
- evangelisch.de (EKD portal), epd report ‘Bundestag hat wieder einen Wichern-Adventskranz’, 25 November 2020evangelisch.de
- Sonntagsblatt (Evangelical weekly, Bavaria), ‘Adventskranz: Wer hat ihn erfunden?’ by Denis Dworatschek, 3 December 2024sonntagsblatt.de