Calendar that brings the New Year closer
The closer New Year is, the more often we look at the calendar to count the remaining days. To brighten up the time before the holiday, and turn the expectation into an exciting activity, the Advent Calendar will help (“Adventus” from Latin can be translated as “approach”). The highlight is that it can be created without much effort and with surprises for children.
In general, the tradition of Advent calendars came to us from abroad. Previously, they were intended only for Catholic Christmas, but in due course it became the main attribute of New Year’s celebrations.
And how did the Advent calendar originate? The first such calendar of 24 colored cards attached to a cardboard with candy was created by Gerhard Lang in 1908. This wonderful tradition was invented by his mother.
In his boyhood days, Gerhard, like all children, was very fond of holidays and looked forward to Christmas with special impatience. He pestered his parents, asking endlessly when it would come. Then the boy’s mother found an interesting way out of the situation – she made a calendar out of thick paper, where she attached cookies to each digit. So, day after day, eating sweets, little Gerhard himself could calculate how soon it would begin the time for Christmas fun.
The tradition of the Advent calendar – a large-scale postcard filled with pleasant little things: sweets, figurines and even interesting tasks for children was picked up by many of our mothers.
Ms. Aiperi, a resident of Ashgabat, made such an advent calendar for her children so that the countdown to the holiday was not boring, but on the contrary, seemed like a fairy-tale action.
“The advantage of a self-made Advent calendar is that it does not anchor to the number of days. It can be timed to coincide with any festive event and include not only the month, but even only the last week. And if desired more you can add to the advent the winter holidays,” says Ms. Aiperi. Another advantage of these calendars is that children can also participate in the creation and development of their design.
As the mother of two children told, in paper bags under numbers beginning from the 1st to the 31st she put a note with a task and a candy. Tasks can be very different, all it depends on the age of the child and his hobbies – a riddle, coloring, a rhyme, a song, a task to glue or make a Christmas tree. But for the last three days, the tasks were more complex and responsible – to help my mother in preparing for the holiday, to show his culinary skills, to pack gifts, and the most important is not to quarrel and believe in good New Year’s miracles.
By the way, Advent calendars can be made for both children and adults. There are many interesting ideas on this topic. For example, a calendar of boxes, Christmas socks, gift bags – it’s all according to your imagination. And you can fill them with cards with tasks, cute souvenirs and sweets.
