Advent originally had almost nothing to do with the Christmas story

Advent marks the beginning of the church calendar in Western Christianity

Each denomination’s calendar of holy days varies, but most mark the start of a new year at the beginning of Advent. Within Roman Catholicism, Advent is a distinct period from Christmas, alongside other seasons: Ordinary Time, Lent, Easter, Holy Week, and Pentecost.

Early European observance varied between penitential and celebratory seasons

For centuries, churches disagreed over the purpose of Advent: Gaul and Spain treated it as a long, penitential fast beginning on November 11, while Rome observed a shorter, more joyful season. These competing traditions were only blended into a unified Advent in the Middle Ages.

One of the earliest Advent practices came as a response to a heretical movement

In 380 CE, the Council of Saragossa met to oppose the spread of Priscillianism, a local heresy. The council ordered Christians to observe strict church attendance from Dec. 17 to Christmas—one of the earliest documented Advent-like practices.

The season celebrates Jesus' birth and anticipates the Second Coming of Christ

The Christian Bible’s New Testament features four gospels, or lives of Jesus, each of which describes the birth of Jesus in different ways (or does not mention it). Historians, both secular and religious, have sought to contextualize the biblical accounts with empirical evidence.

The earliest Advent was a Lent-like fast beginning Nov. 11

In 490, Bishop Perpetuus of Tours ordered Christians to fast three days a week from St. Martin’s Day (Nov. 11) until Christmas. This 40-day season—called St. Martin’s Lent—is one of the earliest documented forms of Advent.

Advent's length varies from 21 to 28 days each year

Because Advent always begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, its duration varies. When Christmas falls on a Monday, Advent is unusually short, and when it falls on a Sunday, it can be nearly four full weeks long.

Christmas celebrates the anniversary of God's birth as the man Jesus

The major holiday originated in the Christian doctrine of God's incarnation in first-century Roman Judea. Though it was not celebrated for several hundred years after Jesus' death, it took on greater importance as the church spread, culminating in a global holiday season today.

Many Christians observe a different theme for each week of Advent

Many churches structure Advent around weekly themes—often hope, peace, joy, and love—which shape sermons, prayers, Scripture readings, and the lighting of candles on the Advent wreath. The specific themes vary widely across denominations and communities.

The traditional colors of Advent are purple, rose, and white

Purple is Advent’s primary color, symbolizing preparation and prayer; rose appears on the third Sunday to signal joy; and white, used for the fifth Advent candle or Christmas liturgies, represents purity and celebration as Christmas arrives.

How ‘O Come, O Come, Emmanuel’ became a beloved, haunting Advent hymn

The text of the hymn is rooted in the ancient O Antiphons. The melancholic melody was traced to an anonymous 15th-century author. The hymn stands as one of the few standard Christmas carols actually intended to be sung during the season of Advent. Listen to the song’s history here.

Martin Luther is often cited as the first to decorate the Christmas tree—though the practice began decades earlier

Luther lore claims he may have been the first to link tree decorations to Jesus, as he used candles to symbolize the Nativity star. However, German bakers had adorned evergreens with apples and sweets as early as 1419 for Christmas Eve displays.

Early texts claim Jesus was conceived on the same date of his death

Though celebrations of Jesus’ birth weren’t formalized for several hundred years after he lived, it was more common to commemorate his death. Some early Church writers connected the presumed date of his death—March 25—with his conception, implying a birth date of Dec. 25.

Saturnalia was a Roman festival that helped shape Christmas

Ancient Romans celebrated Saturnalia in mid-December, honoring Saturn, the god of agriculture, with week-long street festivals. These celebrations featured gift exchanges, lavish meals, and gambling, which was prohibited in public at the time.

Hanukkah wasn’t always a major Jewish holiday

In the 1800s, Jewish immigrants to the United States began searching for ways to maintain their cultural identity in an overwhelmingly Christian environment. Because Hanukkah often falls around the same time as Christmas, Jewish congregations began adapting Christmastime traditions like gift giving to their own holiday.

Advent calendars have become a major seasonal driver for brands

Companies now treat Advent calendars as key holiday products, expanding production as demand surges across categories. Retail data shows beauty and self-care calendars consistently rank among the most popular, as some brands report selling out yearly, and retailers order months in advance.

Christmas elves evolved from Norse mythology to Santa’s workshop

Elves originated as powerful human-sized beings in Norse mythology, closely tied to nature and fertility. In the 1800s, American writers reimagined them as tiny, toy-making assistants for Santa Claus, with later visual depictions by Norman Rockwell and Disney solidifying their role in Christmas folklore.

Nazi Germany replaced Advent calendars with depictions of family life under Nazi rule

During World War II, the Nazi regime banned printed Advent calendars because of religious messaging. Officials instead produced state-approved versions featuring swastikas, tanks, and Nazi symbols.

‘Compound chocolate’ lacks cocoa butter, making Advent calendar candy taste different

One of the fun aspects of the contemporary Advent calendar, making them irresistible to children, are the numerous little chocolates often tucked inside little paper flaps, marking each day leading to Christmas. That chocolate tastes different because it’s likely made from inexpensive fats like palm kernel oil, not cocoa butter.

Christmas was briefly banned in 17th-century England

In the 1640s, Puritans outlawed Christmas, deeming it wasteful and unbiblical. For nearly two decades, celebrations were suppressed and violators fined, though many ignored the ban. The law was repealed in 1660.

Dickens' 'Christmas Carol' emphasized charity as central component of the holiday

During Dickens' time, Christmas was primarily associated with celebration, but "A Christmas Carol" defined the holiday as an opportunity to give to others. Dickens hoped that the story—with the miserly Scrooge experiencing a change of heart when he realizes he should care for the less fortunate—would convince readers to recognize they should do the same.

'Christmas Past' examines the forgotten stories behind holiday traditions

“Christmas Past” is a long-running podcast that explores the origins of Christmas traditions through short and engaging episodes, blending historical deep dives with warm-hearted narration.

El Niño, Spanish for 'the boy,' was named after Jesus Christ because the phenomenon resembled the weather changes observed around Christmastime.

The idea of resurrection was not common at the time of Jesus' death

NT Wright, a leading New Testament scholar, argues that first-century Jews held a wide spectrum of beliefs about the afterlife. This included that the early Christian claim of one individual rising bodily from the dead, ahead of the general resurrection, was without precedent in Judaism or the wider Greco-Roman world.

The dark origins of Valentine's Day.

The holiday began as a feast to celebrate the decapitation of a third-century Christian martyr, or perhaps two. So how did it become all about love?

Miracles versus magic: How early Christians distinguished their beliefs from pagan ones

This in-depth article describes how early Christians attempted to differentiate their beliefs and rituals from those that came before. One major difference? Demons. For pagans, demons could be good or bad, occupying the middle ground between gods...

What the stars once meant to ordinary people

The stars were a crucial aid for ordinary human beings in premodern societies, acting as regular timekeeping phenomena and celestial navigators. Today, light pollution and modern technology have rendered the stars a mere aesthetic delight for most of us, but their significance in history remains. Watch this brief video to learn how premodern humans used the stars for navigation, mathematics, and more.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

The Brothers Grimm were lawyers before they were storytellers, but became interested in fairy tales as they began investigating how rules and customs had been passed down through cultures.

Prince's sexually explicit 1984 track 'Darling Nikki' attracted the ire of the Parents Music Resource Center, an advocacy group that inspired the Parental Advisory sticker, even though the song ends with a Christian message.

Learn more about the history of fireworks, which dates back to an accidental invention during an alchemist's quest for information about immortality.

Abraham Lincoln was almost assassinated weeks before his inauguration as he traveled from Illinois to DC through Baltimore in 1861; it took two independent claims for Lincoln to be convinced the threat was real

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

Many legends about George Washington, including his supposed wooden teeth and the story of cutting down the cherry tree, lack evidence.

The Dracula character, now seen as the vampire archetype, was inspired by a seafood-induced nightmare its creator experienced.

In 2018, 26-year-old missionary John Allen Chau was killed by tribesmen after attempting to reach and evangelize on India's isolated North Sentinel Island

Stanford built a Google Maps for the Roman Empire, revealing how much it cost to travel in the ancient world

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

Trace how the Bill of Rights, inspired by centuries of political theory, took shape between 1774 and 1789.

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

Sears sold DIY house kits starting at $600 in its famous catalog from 1908 through the 1940s, resulting in roughly 10,000 'Sears and Roebuck houses' being built.

Famed poet TS Eliot rejected the manuscript for George Orwell's political fable 'Animal Farm,' writing that its criticism of authoritarianism was not 'the right point of view.'

Most of the observable universe's volume consists of voids and supervoids—enormous regions of space with little to no galaxies, stars, or light.

Human-to-human transmission of hantavirus remains extremely rare, so the 2026 hantavirus cruise ship outbreak doesn't mean we're facing a COVID-style pandemic risk.

In recent years a child anxiety expert has created and tested a novel phobia and anxiety treatment approach for children, focused on changing how parents respond to the fears.

Take a 3D tour of the Hajj, Islam's annual pilgrimage to Mecca, undertaken by over 1.5 million Muslims.

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

The syncytiotrophoblast is the outer layer of the placenta and the largest human cell, spanning an area about twice that of a king-sized bedsheet.

Crows are believed to have intelligence on par with a seven-year-old child and demonstrate complex behaviors, from problem-solving with tools to recognizing human faces.

Budweiser stores yeast derived from the original 1800s strain in a secret bunker, which only the Head of Yeast Management can access—not even the CEO

The US first hosted the World Cup in 1994, a tournament that lives in soccer infamy for its poor planning and the murder of Colombian player Andres Escobar, who'd accidentally scored on his own net.