The Almanac
The year wheel
Turn the wheel: drag the lit hand, press the ring, or use the arrow keys.
Advent to Candlemas
The Christmas season
The feast days from the first Sunday of Advent to Candlemas, and the traditions kept on them.
Feast days
The days on the wheel, and the pages kept on each.
- Advent 1First Sunday of Advent
Advent begins. The first candle of the wreath is lit.
The Advent wreathThe Advent calendar - Dec 6St Nicholas Day
The day of the bishop of Myra. Children set out their shoes the night before.
St Nicholas - Advent 2Second Sunday of Advent
The second candle.
The Advent wreath - Dec 13St Lucia Day
Candles at dawn, in the longest nights.
St Lucia - Advent 3Third Sunday of Advent
The third candle.
The Advent wreath - Dec 16The first Posada
Nine nights of walking with Mary and Joseph begin.
Las Posadas - Advent 4Fourth Sunday of Advent
The fourth candle. Christmas is days away.
The Advent wreath - Dec 24Christmas Eve
The last Posada, the crib, the stocking and the log.
The Christmas cribChristmas stockingsThe Yule logLas Posadas - Dec 25Christmas Day
The birth of Jesus is kept.
JulottaThe Christmas puddingThe Christmas cracker - Dec 26St Stephen’s Day
Boxing Day in Britain and the Commonwealth.
Boxing Day and St Stephen - Dec 28Holy Innocents’ Day
Children are remembered.
- Jan 5Twelfth Night
The twelfth night after Christmas. The tree comes down.
Twelfth Night and Epiphany - Jan 6Epiphany
The visit of the wise men is kept.
Twelfth Night and Epiphany - Feb 2Candlemas
Forty days after Christmas. The candles are blessed.
Candlemas
The traditions
Advent
The four weeks before Christmas, and what is kept in them
- The Christmas puddingA dark fruit pudding, made weeks ahead and carried in alight.Stirred in late November, eaten on Christmas Day
- The Advent wreathA ring of evergreen and four candles, lit one more each Sunday.Four Sundays before Christmas
- Christmas marketsWooden stalls, hot spiced wine and lights in the town square.From late November
- The Advent calendarLittle doors to open, one for each day until Christmas.December 1 to 24
- St NicholasA bishop from long ago, remembered on December 6 with shoes by the door.December 6
- St LuciaA young woman of Sicily, and a morning of candles and saffron buns in Sweden.December 13
- Las PosadasNine nights of walking with Mary and Joseph, ending in song and a piñata.December 16 to 24
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day
The night and the morning
- The Christmas cribThe stable scene that St Francis is credited with setting up in 1223.Advent and Christmas
- Christmas stockingsA sock hung up to be found full in the morning. Nobody knows who started it.Christmas Eve
- The Yule logA great log burned on Christmas Eve, a cake shaped like one, and a fireplace on television.Christmas Eve
- JulottaThe early church service on Christmas morning, walked to by candlelight.Christmas morning
- The Christmas crackerA paper tube that bangs, with a hat, a joke and a small gift inside.Christmas dinner
The twelve days
December 26 to January 6
The last day of the season
February 2
All through the season
Kept from Advent to Twelfth Night
- The Christmas treeFirst written about in Germany and Alsace in the 1500s.Advent to Twelfth Night
- Carols and wassailingSongs sung door to door, and a toast to your health.All season
- The Christmas cardA printed greeting, first sold in London in 1843.All season
- TinselStrips of shining metal hung like icicles, with a history less certain than it looks.All season
- The poinsettiaA winter plant from Mexico with red leaves like a star.All season
- The candy caneA striped sugar cane, and a story about it that is not history.All season
- Gingerbread housesSpiced cake cut and iced into a little house.All season
- The Christmas pickleA glass pickle hidden in the tree, and the American story behind it.Christmas Eve and morning
- Mistletoe and hollyTwo plants that stay green in winter, and what is and is not known about them.All season
- The NutcrackerA toy soldier, a story by Hoffmann and a ballet by Tchaikovsky.December
- The Christmas roseA winter flower that is not a rose, and a German carol about a rose in winter.Midwinter