Editing Advent (section)

=== Local rites ===

In England, especially in the northern counties, there was a custom (now extinct) for poor women to carry around the "Advent images", two dolls dressed to represent Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary. A halfpenny coin was expected from every one to whom these were exhibited and bad luck was thought to menace the household not visited by the doll-bearers before Christmas Eve at the latest.<ref>{{cite book |editor-first = Robert |editor-last = Chambers |year = 1864 |title = The Book of Days: A miscellany of popular antiquities in connection with the calendar |place = Philadelphia |volume = 2 |pages = 724–725 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=VEcJAAAAIAAJ}}</ref>

In [[Normandy]], farmers employed children under twelve to run through the fields and orchards armed with torches, setting fire to bundles of straw, and thus, it was believed, driving out such vermin as were likely to damage the crops.<ref>{{cite book |author-link = William Hone |first = William |last = Hone |year = 1832 |section = 5&nbsp;December: Advent in Normandy |title = The Year Book of Daily Recreation and Information |place = London, UK |publisher = [[Thomas Tegg]] |url = http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Text/Hone/december_5_advent_in_normandy.htm |access-date = 2 May 2010}}</ref>

In Italy, among other Advent celebrations, is the entry into [[Rome]] in the last days of Advent of the Calabrian {{lang|it|pifferari}}, or bagpipe players, who play before the shrines of Mary, the mother of Jesus: in Italian tradition, the shepherds played these pipes when they came to the [[manger]] at [[Bethlehem]] to pay homage to the infant Jesus.<ref name=Miles-1912-2017/>{{rp|style=ama|p= [https://archive.org/details/christmascustoms0000mile/page/112 112]}}

In recent times,{{as of when|date=November 2024}} the most common observance of Advent outside church circles has been the keeping of an Advent calendar or [[Advent candle]], with one door being opened in the calendar, or one section of the candle being burned, on each day in December leading up to Christmas Eve. In many countries, the first day of Advent often heralds the start of the [[Christmas and holiday season|Christmas season]], with many people opting to erect their [[Christmas trees]] and Christmas decorations on or immediately before Advent Sunday.<ref name="Normark1997" />

Since 2011, an Advent [[labyrinth]] consisting of 2,500 [[tealight]]s has been formed for the third Saturday of Advent in [[Bornheim (Frankfurt am Main)|Frankfurt-Bornheim]].<ref name=HK-2500-tealights>{{cite web |title = Terminanmeldung – Meditation und Gestaltung eines Adventslabyrinths |lang=de |trans-title=Appointment – Meditation and design of an Advent labyrinth | year = 2016 | publisher = Heilig Kreuz – Zentrum für christliche Meditation und Spiritualität [Holy Cross – Center for christian meditation and spirituality] | url = https://meditationszentrum.bistumlimburg.de/veranstaltungen.html?anmeldung=9075 | access-date = 23 December 2016 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20161223153520/https://meditationszentrum.bistumlimburg.de/veranstaltungen.html?anmeldung=9075 | archive-date = 23 December 2016 | df = dmy-all }}</ref>