What Is Advent? Meaning, the Four Candles and 2026 Dates

Advent is the season of preparation before Christmas and the start of the Western church year. It covers the four Sundays before December 25 and looks both back to Christ's birth and ahead to his return. In 2026, Advent begins Sunday, November 29, and ends Thursday, December 24.

At a Glance

• Advent 2026 runs from Sunday, November 29, through Thursday, December 24. Christmas falls on Friday, December 25.
• The four Sundays of Advent in 2026 are November 29, December 6, December 13, and December 20.
• The word comes from the Latin ad-venire, "to come to." The season prepares for the coming of Christ at Christmas and points ahead to his second coming.
• The classic Advent wreath holds three purple candles and one rose candle. The rose candle is lit on the third Sunday, called Gaudete Sunday, the Sunday of rejoicing.
• Many Lutheran, Methodist, and Episcopal churches use blue instead of purple, and many Protestant churches name the candles hope, peace, joy, and love.
• A white Christ candle in the center is lit at Christmas.

When Is Advent in 2026?

Advent always begins on a Sunday. According to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, it starts on "the Sunday that falls on or closest to November 30" and runs until Christmas Eve. That rule means the First Sunday of Advent can fall anywhere from November 27 to December 3, so the season lasts between three and four weeks. In 2026 it lasts 26 days.

Here are the Advent dates for 2026, as listed in the USCCB's Liturgical Calendar for the Dioceses of the United States, 2027, which covers the church year that begins this Advent:

• First Sunday of Advent: Sunday, November 29, 2026
• Second Sunday of Advent: Sunday, December 6, 2026
• Third Sunday of Advent (Gaudete Sunday): Sunday, December 13, 2026
• Fourth Sunday of Advent: Sunday, December 20, 2026
• Last day of Advent: Thursday, December 24, 2026 (Christmas Eve)
• Christmas Day: Friday, December 25, 2026

Protestant churches that follow the Revised Common Lectionary keep the same four Sundays. The Vanderbilt Divinity Library's lectionary calendar lists Advent Sundays on November 29, December 6, December 13, and December 20, 2026, opening lectionary Year B. Catholic parishes also read from Sunday Year B this year, so Catholics and many Protestants will hear largely the same Gospel passages each Sunday.

Two other dates fall inside Advent 2026 for Catholics in the United States. The Immaculate Conception, the patronal feast of the United States, falls on Tuesday, December 8, and the USCCB calendar lists it as a holy day of obligation. Our Lady of Guadalupe falls on Saturday, December 12.

What Does the Word Advent Mean?

"Advent" comes from the Latin ad-venire, "to come to," as the USCCB explains. The coming in view is the coming of Christ, and the season looks in two directions at once.

The Catholic Church's Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year describe it this way: "Advent has a twofold character." It is a time of preparation for Christmas, "in which the First Coming of the Son of God to humanity is remembered," and a time when minds and hearts "are led to look forward to Christ's Second Coming at the end of time." For those two reasons, the norms call Advent "a period of devout and expectant delight."

The Episcopal Church's seasonal resources put it in similar terms, calling Advent "a time of preparation, hope, and expectation." The ELCA's worship office, in its LiturgyGram on the season, names "themes of watchfulness, preparation, and hope."

Advent is also New Year's Day for the church. It is the first season of the liturgical calendar, which is why the church year does not start on January 1. Our guide to the church year and its liturgical seasons shows how Advent leads into Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, and Easter.

How Did Advent Begin?

No one knows exactly when Christians first kept Advent. The Catholic Encyclopedia's entry on Advent says plainly that "it cannot be determined with any degree of certainty when the celebration of Advent was first introduced into the Church."

What survives are early church rules that point toward a season before Christmas. The same entry describes a synod held at Saragossa, in Spain, in 380, whose fourth canon told the faithful not to stay away from church from December 17 to the feast of the Epiphany. A council at Mâcon, in Gaul, in 581 ordered that from November 11 to Christmas, Mass be offered according to the Lenten rite on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

The number of Sundays also changed. The Catholic Encyclopedia notes that the Gelasian Sacramentary, an early Roman book of prayers, provided for five Sundays of Advent, and that these were reduced to four by Pope Gregory VII, who reigned from 1073 to 1085.

The Eastern churches developed a longer preparation. In a reflection published by the Orthodox Church in America, Fr. Steven Kostoff writes of "the forty day Nativity Fast," which begins on November 15, and explains that the faithful "are directed to observe a fast as we prepare for the advent of the Son of God in the flesh" (OCA reflection).

What Do the Four Advent Candles Mean?

The Advent wreath is the most familiar sign of the season. The USCCB describes the traditional form as "a circle of evergreen branches into which four candles are inserted," one for each Sunday. One candle is lit on the First Sunday of Advent, a second is added the next Sunday, and so on, until all four are burning on the Fourth Sunday.

In the Catholic tradition the colors follow the liturgy. "Ideally, three candles are purple, and one is rose," the USCCB says, "but white candles can also be used." The bishops explain the colors this way:

• Purple candles (first, second, and fourth Sundays): they "symbolize the prayer, penance, and preparatory sacrifices" and good works of the season. Purple is also the liturgical color of Advent, as it is of Lent, because both seasons prepare for great feasts.
• Rose candle (third Sunday): it marks Gaudete Sunday, the midpoint of Advent, when the mood brightens toward joy.

The growing light carries its own meaning. According to the USCCB, "the progressive lighting of the candles symbolizes the expectation and hope surrounding our Lord's first coming." Each week the wreath is a little brighter, and Christmas is a little closer.

Why Is the Third Advent Candle Pink?

The third candle is pink, or more precisely rose, because the Third Sunday of Advent is a Sunday of joy. Its traditional name, Gaudete, is Latin for "rejoice." The USCCB calls it "the Sunday of rejoicing, because the faithful have arrived at the midpoint of Advent."

The name is tied to a verse from Paul's letter to the Philippians, as the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod notes in its guide to Lutheran Advent traditions. In the King James Version, Philippians 4:4 reads: "Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice."

In Catholic parishes, the color carries over to the altar. The USCCB says the rose candle is lit on Gaudete Sunday, "when the priest also wears rose vestments at Mass," and the 2027 liturgical calendar lists the color for December 13, 2026, as "violet or rose." Rose vestments are an option, so not every parish will use them.

Pink is not only a Catholic custom. United Methodist Communications, in its Ask The UMC explainer on Advent candles, notes that church supply houses often sell rose or pink candles for "Gaudete" or "Joy Sunday," and the LCMS describes "one pink candle lit on the 3rd Sunday in Advent."

What Are the Hope, Peace, Joy and Love Candles?

Many churches give each candle a theme, and the most familiar set in American Protestant churches is hope, peace, joy, and love. A United Methodist Advent devotional puts it this way: "Each week we light a candle to remind us of the hope, peace, joy and love that God gifts us."

These names are a custom, not a rule, and the order is not fixed. United Methodist Communications explains that by the middle of the twentieth century, church supply houses had assigned themes to the candles based on the readings of the older one-year lectionaries: "Those themes were Hope, Love, Joy, and Peace, in that order." Because those themes may not match the readings churches use today, the same article suggests drawing each week's theme from that Sunday's Scripture readings instead.

The USCCB does not assign the four names at all. In Catholic teaching, the purple candles stand for prayer and penance, and the rose candle for the joy of Gaudete Sunday. If your church uses a different set of names, or none, it is following its own custom rather than breaking a rule. As the UMC article puts it, the candles "are an accessory, not an end in themselves."

What Is the Christ Candle?

Many wreaths add a fifth candle in the center: a larger white candle often called the Christ candle. It is lit at Christmas, after the four weeks of waiting are over.

The United Methodist glossary entry on the Advent wreath, drawn from A Dictionary for United Methodists, says the white center candle has become customary and is lit at Christmas Eve services and on Christmas Day. The LCMS describes it as "the Christ candle, which is lit during the time of Christmas." Living Lutheran, the ELCA's magazine, places the white candle in the middle of the wreath and says it is lit during the Christmas season (Living Lutheran).

White is the color of Christmas itself. When the Christ candle is lit, the purple or blue of waiting gives way to the white of celebration.

How Do Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist and Episcopal Churches Differ?

Most American churches that keep Advent share the same basic pattern of four Sundays, a wreath, and a growing light. The differences are mostly in color and in the names given to the candles. As Living Lutheran observes, candle colors differ by denomination and sometimes by congregation. Here is what each tradition's own sources say:

• Catholic: Purple is the color of the season, with rose as an option on the Third Sunday. The wreath ideally has three purple candles and one rose (USCCB).
• Lutheran (ELCA): "Blue or purple is the appointed color for the season," according to the ELCA's worship office. Living Lutheran adds that "many ELCA congregations use blue candles, which point to Advent as a season of hope and expectation."
• Lutheran (LCMS): Paraments and vestments in many churches change to violet, and "the color blue can also be used as a symbol of anticipation and hope." The wreath traditionally has three purple or blue candles, one pink candle for the Third Sunday, and a Christ candle.
• United Methodist: Candles are "usually purple or blue, to coordinate with color of the paraments," with rose or pink often used on the Third Sunday, and a white Christ candle at Christmas (United Methodist Communications).
• Episcopal: The Episcopal Church lists the season's color as "purple or royal blue."
• Orthodox: Orthodox churches prepare with the forty day Nativity Fast, which begins on November 15 (OCA).

Why blue? The LCMS and the ELCA both connect blue with hope and anticipation, which keeps the focus of the season on hopeful waiting.

Where Did the Advent Wreath Come From?

The modern Advent wreath is younger than many people assume. Living Lutheran writes that "not until 1839 did German Lutheran pastor and missionary Johann Hinrich Wichern invent the modern Advent wreath."

Wichern ran the Rauhes Haus, a home for children that he founded in 1833 in an old farmhouse outside Hamburg. According to evangelisch.de, the German Protestant news site, the children kept asking him when Christmas would finally come. So he fixed onto a wooden wagon wheel as many candles as there were days from the First Sunday of Advent to Christmas Eve. Because that number changes each year, so did the number of candles.

Accounts differ on the details. Living Lutheran reports that Wichern's candles were white for Sundays and red for the other days. Evangelisch.de reports that there is probably no evidence Wichern actually used different candles. Over time, the number of candles shrank to four, one per Sunday. Evangelisch.de records that a Catholic church in Cologne took up the custom in 1925, and that the first wreath was seen in Munich in 1930.

Wichern did not work from nothing. United Methodist Communications describes the wreath as beginning "as a German and Scandinavian home devotional practice," and the LCMS traces the Advent tradition to the Lutheran church after the Reformation, while noting that "the current form commonly used today was developed more recently."

How Can You Keep Advent at Home?

The Advent wreath began as a home custom, and the season is still easy to keep around a kitchen table. A few simple practices:

• Light the wreath. Light one candle the first week and add one each week. In home devotions, the UMC glossary notes, the candles are often lit daily, following the same sequence.
• Read the Sunday Gospel together. In 2026 the Sunday Gospels for both the Catholic lectionary and the Revised Common Lectionary come from Year B: Mark 13 on November 29, Mark 1:1-8 on December 6, John 1:6-8 and 19-28 on December 13, and Luke 1:26-38, the angel's announcement to Mary, on December 20.
• Follow the story day by day. A Jesse Tree pairs one short Bible reading with one symbol each day of Advent, tracing the promises that lead to Jesus.
• Pray the O Antiphons. From December 17 to 23, the church sings the "O Antiphons" at evening prayer. The USCCB notes that Rome has sung them "since at least the eighth century," and that their repeated plea "Come!" embodies the longing for the Messiah. The LCMS also recommends them for home devotions, along with the hymn "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel."

The Second Sunday's Gospel gives the season its theme in one line. Mark 1:3, in the King James Version, quotes the prophet: "Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." That is the work of Advent: making room, in a busy month, for the One who is coming.

For an overview of the season's meaning, Scripture, and customs in one place, see our Advent holiday guide.