Christmas Eve
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Christmas Eve is the evening or entire day before Christmas Day, the festival commemorating the birth of Jesus. Christmas Day is observed around the world, and Christmas Eve is widely observed as a full or partial holiday in anticipation of Christmas Day. Together, both days are considered one of the most culturally significant celebrations in Christendom and Western society.
Christmas Eve, an 1878 painting by J. Hoover & Son
Midnight Mass is held in many churches toward the end of Christmas Eve, often with dim lighting and traditional decorative accents such as greenery.
Advent wreath, lighting the candle
Typical Neapolitan nativity scene, or presepe or presepio, in Rome.
Advent wreath
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The Advent wreath, or Advent crown, is a Christian tradition that symbolizes the passage of the four weeks of Advent in the liturgical calendar of the Western church. It is traditionally a Lutheran practice, although it has spread to many other Christian denominations.
Advent wreath as designed by Johann Hinrich Wichern
Advent wreath with three purple candles and one rose candle
One of the four candles is lit every Sunday of Advent until Christmas.