Advent Wreath

A circular evergreen wreath holding four candles — one lit on each Sunday of Advent — used as a devotional countdown to Christmas, originating in 19th-century Lutheran Germany. The original form was a large cartwheel hung in a prayer hall, not a tabletop wreath. Remained a Protestant German practice for decades; fir greenery was added around 1860; the simplified four-candle tabletop form emerged as a domestic adaptation; first documented Catholic use was in a Cologne church in 1925, followed by Munich in 1930; spread to North America via German immigrants and returning soldiers after World War II; by mid-20th century the four-candle form was standard across most Western denominations.