Advent calendars are as popular as ever. The pilgrimage museum Neukirchen bei Heiligen Blut shows in an exhibition how this custom came about, how it survived dictatorships and what other changes it has undergone.
The advent calendar is by no means an ancient custom. It was only 120 years ago that the first printed copy was offered for sale. It was a kind of Christmas clock that came onto the market in Hamburg in 1902 and heralded the worldwide success story of the Advent calendar.
The first advent calendar appeared in Bavaria in 1908. Made by the Reichhold & Lang lithographic art institute, this “Munich Christmas calendar” took customers to the “Land of the Christ Child”. The Regensburg folklorist Esther Gajek knows this specimen particularly well, as she owns the largest collection of advent calendars in the world. It comprises a good 3000 pieces. A good 80 calendars from this collection are currently being shown in an exhibition in the Neukirchen bei Heiligen Blut pilgrimage museum (Cham district).
Gajek says she kept her advent calendars as a child. Back when these were still included in the Fix & Foxi booklets. She couldn’t let go of the fascination of opening the door. She even devoted herself to the topic of advent calendars in her thesis at university.
“The Church of Seiffen”, illustration: Rotraut Hinderks-Kutscher, Adolf Korsch Verlag, No. 451, Munich 1966 (Collection Esther Gajek).
(Photo: Pilgrimage Museum Neukirchen bei Heiligen Blut / Collection Esther Gajek)
Getting old calendars is not easy, Gajek says they were throwaway products. At most, products that they made themselves were kept. They already existed in the 19th century in the Biedermeier period. Gerhard Lang’s mother (1881-1974) also made such calendars. After his son joined the Reichhold lithographic institute in Munich, he put his mother’s idea into commercial practice. She had drawn 24 fields on a cardboard box and sewn a candy on each field.
“The Christ Child in the Forest”, illustration: Dora Baum, Reichhold & Lang, Munich, 1934 (Esther Gajek collection).
(Photo: Pilgrimage Museum Neukirchen bei Heiligen Blut / Collection Esther Gajek)
In Neukirchen the range extends from the early copies to the National Socialist Advent calendar “Pre-Christmas” and the “Snowy City of Heaven” of the GDR to the present day Turbo Christmas. The chocolate-filled advent calendars, as they have been made since 1925, are indestructible.
In the land of the Christ Child. Advent calendar from the Esther Gajek collection. Pilgrimage Museum Neukirchen bei Heiligen Blut, until February 2nd, phone 09947/940823.