Advent 2026 begins on Sunday, November 29, and runs through Christmas Eve, December 24. It is always the four Sundays before Christmas, so the start date moves each year — the earliest it can begin is November 27, the latest December 3.
What Advent is
Advent — from the Latin *adventus*, "arrival" — is the season of waiting that opens the Christian year. For four weeks the church reads the long road to Bethlehem: Isaiah's promises, John the Baptist's voice in the wilderness, the annunciation, the Magnificat. It is a season of hope held in the dark, which is why its oldest symbol is a growing ring of candlelight.
The four candles
Each Sunday of Advent lights one candle on the wreath: hope, peace, joy, and love in the most common ordering, with the rose-colored candle on the third Sunday — *Gaudete*, "rejoice" — marking the turn from waiting toward celebration. Many wreaths add a white Christ candle at the center, lit on Christmas.
Keeping it daily
A season read only on Sundays slips away between them. The older practice is daily: one short reading each morning, from the prophecies through the Nativity. That is what Seraph's Candle-Lighting Calendar is — twenty-five daily readings, December 1 through Christmas Day, each one kept with the same quiet flame that keeps your daily prayer. The daily office on Seraph is free; the Advent journey is part of Seraph+.