defestival1-2, Exercise 1: Advent customs and their records

Model answer (check each):

1. Advent wreath: Johann Hinrich Wichern, Hamburg, 1839, a wheel of candles at the Rauhes Haus. Reasonably well documented for the first version; the fir wreath came later and its spread is less clear.
2. Advent calendar: printed calendars credited to Gerhard Lang in Munich in the early 1900s. Moderately documented; earlier home-made counting customs (chalk lines, candles) are mentioned but weakly recorded.
3. St Nicholas on 6 December: the saint is a bishop of Myra, with a long church record; the German shoe custom has wide evidence but regional variants.
4. Christmas markets: winter fairs recorded in the late Middle Ages (Dresden 1434 is claimed); the Christmas-labelled market is later. Contested.
5. Christmas tree: earliest descriptions from the Upper Rhine in the 1500s and 1600s (Strasbourg 1605 is often cited). Documented as a growing custom, not an invention.

The point is to see that some customs have a named person and date, while others only have a gradual history and contested "oldest" claims.