Advent Devotions

Devotions

An overview of the popular piety that surrounds the season of Advent — the wreath, the O Antiphons, and the family of novenas leading to Christmas.

Advent devotions are the family of popular practices that accompany the four weeks of watchful preparation before Christmas, extending the liturgical season’s themes of hope and expectation into home and parish life. They include the Advent wreath with its progressively lit candles, the ancient O Antiphons prayed in the final week before Christmas, novenas such as the St. Andrew Christmas Novena and the Christmas Novena, and a range of culturally specific customs kept in different countries. This page surveys the season’s devotions as a group; several of the more distinct practices are treated in full on their own pages.

Quick Facts

  • Category: Liturgical Year — Advent & Christmas
  • Origin: Historic popular piety accompanying the Roman liturgical year
  • Observed: Advent, the four weeks (beginning the Sunday nearest November 30) leading up to Christmas (movable)
  • Church status: Recognized/encouraged popular piety when harmonized with the liturgy
  • Private revelation: Not dependent on private revelation

What Is This Devotion?

Advent’s liturgy sets a tone of watchful hope, looking both backward to Israel’s long expectation of the Messiah and forward to Christ’s second coming, while preparing more immediately for the celebration of his birth at Christmas. Around this liturgical core, a rich body of popular piety has grown up over the centuries to help households and parishes keep the season deliberately, rather than letting it dissolve into purely secular preparations for the holiday.

The most widespread of these practices is the Advent wreath, whose four candles, lit in turn on the four Sundays of Advent, mark the season’s progress toward Christmas. Alongside it stand the O Antiphons, sung or recited on the final seven days before Christmas Eve, and a family of novenas, most notably the St. Andrew Christmas Novena and the Christmas Novena, that structure sustained daily prayer through the season.

Origin and History

Advent developed as a distinct liturgical season in the Western Church by around the sixth century, its length and character varying somewhat by region before settling into the present four-Sunday form. The Advent wreath in its now-familiar shape has a more recent, specifically German Lutheran origin in the nineteenth century, associated with the pastor Johann Hinrich Wichern, before being adopted into Catholic households and parishes over the following century as a natural fit for the season’s themes.

The O Antiphons, by contrast, are considerably older, attested in monastic use by around the eighth century and structured so that the first letters of their Latin Messianic titles, read backward from December 23 to 17, spell out a Latin acrostic traditionally read as “Tomorrow I will come” — a detail long treasured in popular explanations of the antiphons’ careful construction.

Catholic Theology

The Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy commends devotions of this kind precisely because they are structured to draw the faithful more deeply into the specific character of the liturgical season they accompany, rather than existing independently of it (CCC §§1674-1676). Advent’s devotions consistently work this way: the wreath’s growing light mirrors the approach of Christ the Light of the World, and the O Antiphons gather together, one by one, the Old Testament titles by which Israel longed for the Messiah, forming a direct devotional bridge into the liturgy of Christmas itself.

How to Practice It

  • Bless and light an Advent wreath at home, adding one candle each Sunday of the season.
  • Pray or sing the O Antiphons daily from December 17 to 23, in the final stretch before Christmas Eve.
  • Join a Christmas novena, such as the St. Andrew Christmas Novena or the Christmas Novena, as a way of sustaining daily prayer through the season.
  • Where kept locally, take part in culturally specific Advent customs such as Las Posadas or Simbang Gabi, understood as regional expressions rather than universal observances.

Associated Prayers

When It’s Observed

Advent begins on the Sunday nearest to November 30 and continues for four Sundays until Christmas Eve, a movable span that shifts slightly from year to year. The O Antiphons occupy the final seven days of the season specifically, from December 17 through 23.

Church Status

Advent itself is a fixed season of the universal Church’s liturgical calendar. The devotional practices that accompany it — the wreath, the O Antiphons in their popular (non-liturgical) form, and the various novenas — are recognized and widely encouraged popular piety, though their specific customs vary considerably by country and parish.

Common Misconceptions

“Every Advent devotion practiced somewhere is a universal Church observance.”

This is not the case. Advent as a liturgical season is universal, but many of its most familiar devotions carry a specific regional or historical origin — the Advent wreath from nineteenth-century German piety, Las Posadas from Mexico and Central America, Simbang Gabi from the Philippines — and are best understood as legitimate local expressions of the same underlying season rather than practices required everywhere.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between the O Antiphons and the Advent wreath?

The Advent wreath is a home and parish devotion marking the season’s progress week by week, while the O Antiphons are a set of seven ancient Messianic titles sung or recited on the final seven days before Christmas Eve; the same texts also appear liturgically as the Gospel Acclamation verses at those days’ Masses.

Do I need to complete a full novena to observe Advent well?

No. Novenas such as the St. Andrew Christmas Novena are a helpful, optional way of sustaining daily prayer through the season, not a requirement for keeping Advent faithfully; the wreath, the liturgy itself, and simple daily prayer are sufficient.

Are regional Advent customs like Las Posadas or Simbang Gabi required practices?

No. They are legitimate, historically rooted expressions of Advent devotion specific to certain countries and cultures, not universal requirements of the season, which the Church keeps everywhere through its common liturgical texts regardless of local custom.

Sources

Explore More