adventus

Latin adventus meant arrival, approach, coming. From advenire: ad (to) + venire (to come). In Roman culture, an adventus was the formal, ceremonial arrival of an emperor or high official at a city. Citizens lined the streets. Offerings were made. The adventus was a political event, carefully staged. The word named the moment when authority appeared in person.

Christians applied adventus to the coming of Christ — both the first coming (the Incarnation, the birth in Bethlehem) and the anticipated second coming (the return in glory). The liturgical season of Advent — the four weeks before Christmas — prepares for both arrivals simultaneously. The candles on the Advent wreath count down the weeks. The anticipation is the discipline. The arrival is the point.

The Advent calendar appeared in nineteenth-century Germany. Lutheran families marked the days from December 1 to December 25 with chalk lines, candles, or small devotional images. Gerhard Lang produced the first printed Advent calendar around 1908 in Munich. The chocolate Advent calendar — with a chocolate behind each door — appeared in the 1950s. The theological countdown became a candy countdown.

The word adventure comes from the same root — adventura (things about to happen, from advenire). An adventure and an advent are both arrivals — one of a deity, the other of the unknown. The Latin verb to come gave English its words for Christmas preparation and for dangerous excitement. Coming can be sacred or perilous. The verb does not distinguish.