Advent is the 24 days leading up to Christmas. During this time, Christians (and many non-Christians) prepare for Christmas by hanging up decorations.
To count down the days until Christmas, many people tend to have an advent calendar to countdown the days until Christmas Day.
In the past, Advent meant not eating meat, eggs or cheese until Christmas Day. This was because, especially in the Tudor times, there would be 12 days of feasting starting on Christmas Day.
This was because, especially in the Tudor times, there would be 12 days of feasting starting on Christmas Day.
No-one knows for sure when Advent was first celebrated, but there were records of monks in 567AD being ordered to fast before Christmas.
Advent calendars
The counting down until Christmas using a calendar started in the 1850s, when people made their own advent calendars. Germans marked 24 lines with chalk on their door and rubbing one off every day until Christmas Day.
The first commercial advent calendars weren’t made until the 1900s in Germany. And there wasn’t any chocolate inside them – those only become popular in the 1980s!