Advent gift

Why there are 24 lights on the traditional wreath

There are four large and twenty small lights on the Advent wreath presented by Diakonie.(Bild: zvg)

Advent wreaths come in a wide variety of styles and designs, but the traditional wreath features 24 candles. Diakonie presented one of these to the "Krone" editors!

A wreath with as many candles as Advent has days - namely 20 - plus four large lights for the Sundays of Advent. There's a touching story behind it: the founding father of Diakonie Deutschland, theologian Johann Hinrich Wichern, is actually considered the inventor of the Advent wreath.

In 1839, he built such an Advent wreath from a wooden wagon wheel in the prayer room of the Rauhes Haus in Hamburg, where orphaned children were cared for. "The wreath was decorated with a candle for each day until Christmas. The theologian wanted to shorten the children's waiting time for Christmas," says Diakonie rector Astrid Körner. This means that in addition to the four Advent candles for the Advent Sundays, smaller candles were attached to the wreath for the days in between.

Our editors received the Advent wreath(Bild: Kronen Zeitung)

Handmade wreath handed over to the editorial team
The visit to the "Kärntner Krone" editorial office in Klagenfurt has already become a tradition. Every year, a team from the Diakonie training nursery Pro Ausblick, where people with disabilities are supported on their way into working life, stops by to hand over such a pretty wreath. Körner: "Six young people are currently being trained in this workshop to prepare them for their future job in a nursery." The Advent wreath - made from fir branches and thujas, which are also known as the tree of life - was presented by Tobias and Leon. "It takes us two hours to complete a wreath like this." The Krone team is delighted and thankful!