Tomorrow marks the first Sunday in Advent and the official beginning of our 2016 Advent Calendar. We are delighted with the warm reception you have given this calendar over the past years. It has become an important tradition for us as well.

Not that long ago, the term “Advent Calendar” brought one kind of image to mind: a pretty cardstock picture of the Nativity, replete with palm trees and a winding road for the arrival of shepherds or kings. The picture was splashed with perforated die-cut “windows” that popped open (with some difficulty, as I recall) to reveal a Bible verse or biblical image.

Over time, secular images of Christmas appeared on the cover, although the biblical verses often remained inside the little doors. In their most extravagant form, Advent calendars were constructed as wobbly cardboard frames with tiny pieces of chocolate behind each perforated door. These, of course, were the most prized by children!

Oh, how things have changed. The Advent Calendar has been retooled as a glitzy marketing tool. Have you seen them? Everywhere I’ve been in recent weeks, from Italy to France, Germany to Spain, the stores are bulging with oversized oblong boxes proclaiming themselves to be Advent Calendars. Their modern designs reflect the colors and branding of the products contained inside,

Yes, products. Once seemingly invulnerable, even this cherished tradition of Advent has been appropriated as a vehicle of the same commercialization that plagues so much of our holiday celebrations. Rather than tabs opening onto Bible verses, these new calendars open onto the world of luxury. Behind the doors sparkle petit bottles of Channel perfumes, L’Occitane lotions, and trinkets of jewelry. I’ve even seen an “Advent Calendar” from Cigar World. Need I say more?

Wait! Pets aren’t left out either in this cavalcade of new paraphernalia: Rover can open his door and consume a new dog treat every day during the march to Christmas. But perhaps the biggest distortion of Advent’s message blares across Lancôme’s Advent Calendar, where a swishy cover announces its contents with a flashy banner: “All I want this Christmas.”

“All I want this Christmas”? Nothing could be further from Advent’s true purpose of prayerful preparation for the quiet miracle of Christ’s birth. Advent’s power lies in its promise to help us experience a spiritual rebirth. To that end, we dedicate the pages that will follow in our 2016 Advent Calendar, entries that will begin by presenting the Advent Wreath tomorrow on the First Sunday in Advent, and continue throughout this year’s long season, featuring art, song, poetry, and liturgical traditions.

It certainly is our answer to the brassy product-filled Advent calendars and the general commercialization of the season. Although, to be fair, perhaps, these shiny boxes might lead some people to ask, “What is Advent anyway?” Hope springs eternal. So with that hope, let’s tell the story of how the Advent calendar developed in the first place.

The idea of ticking off days until something important happens is timeless. We tend to do it automatically, even as children. Across time, there have been specific folk traditions for marking off the days until Christmas, including lighting a new candle each day, making a chalk mark on a door, or hanging up a daily picture or decoration.

The earliest reference to something called an “Advent Calendar,” though, seems to date from 1851. A half-century later in 1902, a printer in Hamburg, Germany produced the first commercially printed Advent calendar. Sources next reference a Schwabian printer named Gerhard Lang who, in 1908, fashioned little pictures to adhere to each date of a calendar. Lang’s involvement continued, and in the 1920s his Munich firm Reichhold & Lang printed calendars with little doors that opened. The Sankt Johannis Printing Company is credited with adding Bible verses in the 1930s.

But with the horrors of World War II, such lovely items disappeared, if for no other reason the paper shortage. Immediately after the war, the Stuttgart firm of Sellmer-Verlag (Sellmer Publishers) obtained a special license to obtain the necessary paper and began printing Advent Calendars once again. Imagine how the reappearance of these beautiful items cheered a war-torn population.

Sellmer-Verlag proudly continues its role as King of the Advent Calendars. Their selection is dazzling. This year they printed 140 different types, including some with those prized pieces of chocolate! Plus they have one web page featuring reprints of their nostalgic line—designs as far back as the first calendar published after World War II in 1946.

Most commercially produced Advent Calendars have slots for only 24 days, with a presupposed beginning of December 1. But the season frequently is longer. Starting on the fourth Sunday before Christmas and ending Christmas Eve, Advent can last anywhere from 22 to 28 days. This year, 2016, Advent will bring us the longest possible season: 28 days. So let’s journey through these 28 days together, sharing a series of short, daily essays exploring history, music, arts, and a variety of traditions that will lead us to Christmas.