A guide
What it is, what the candles mean, and a prayer for each week
Advent is the four weeks before Christmas. The word comes from the Latin adventus, which means coming or arrival, and the church has kept the season for about fifteen hundred years as a time of waiting on purpose. In 2026 it begins on Sunday, November 29 and ends on Christmas Eve.
Most families meet Advent as a wreath on the kitchen table, with one more candle lit each Sunday. This page explains what the candles mean, gives a short prayer to read as each one is lit, and lists a Bible reading for every day from December 1 to Christmas. If you only need this Sunday's prayer, the links just below go straight to it.
Advent looks in two directions at once. It remembers the long wait before the first Christmas, when Israel held on to promises made centuries earlier and heard nothing new from God for about four hundred years between the last prophet and the birth of John the Baptist. And it looks ahead to the day Christ comes again, which the church is still waiting for.
That is why the readings in Advent are not mostly about the manger. They are about promises: a child from David's family, a ruler from Bethlehem, a light for people living in darkness. Christmas is the day the first set came true. Advent is practice at trusting the ones still outstanding.
4 But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive our adoption as sons.
Galatians 4:4-5
11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to everyone.
12 It instructs us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live sensible, upright, and godly lives in the present age,
13 as we await the blessed hope and glorious appearance of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
Titus 2:11-13
The Advent wreath is a ring of evergreen with four candles around it and often a fifth, white one in the center. One candle is lit on the first Sunday of Advent, two on the second, and so on, so the table gets a little brighter each week until Christmas.
Most churches name the four candles hope, peace, joy and love. Some use older names (the Prophets' candle, the Bethlehem candle, the Shepherds' candle and the Angels' candle), and some swap peace and love. Every version agrees on the third. It is joy, and it is usually the pink one.
The colors come from the church calendar. Three candles are purple (or blue), the color of a season of preparation. The third is rose because that Sunday has long been called Gaudete, Latin for rejoice, after Philippians 4:4. The white candle in the middle is the Christ candle, lit on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.
The wreath is younger than most people expect. In 1839 Johann Hinrich Wichern, a Lutheran pastor running a home for poor boys in Hamburg, built a cartwheel with a small candle for every weekday and a large one for every Sunday until Christmas, because the boys kept asking how long it was. Over time the weekday candles dropped away and the four Sundays stayed.
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!
Philippians 4:4
Once again, Jesus spoke to the people and said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.”
John 8:12
The first candle is lit on the first Sunday of Advent, this year November 29. Hope comes first because that is where the story starts: people who had been promised a Savior and were still waiting for Him. Isaiah wrote to a nation with every reason to give up and told them the darkness would not have the last word.
Christian hope is not the same thing as optimism. Optimism looks at the circumstances and expects them to improve. Hope looks at God and expects Him to keep His word, which is why Paul can call Him the God of hope.
Lighting the first candle
Lord God, we light this candle for hope. Long before Jesus was born, Your people waited in the dark for You to keep Your promise, and You kept it. We are waiting for things too, and You know what they are. Teach us to wait the way they did, looking at You and not only at our circumstances. Come, Lord Jesus. Amen.
The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.
Isaiah 9:2
But those who wait upon the LORD will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.
Isaiah 40:31
Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 15:13
The second candle is lit on December 6. Isaiah's list of names for the coming child ends with Prince of Peace, and the angels at Bethlehem announced peace on earth. Neither meant the absence of trouble. Jesus was born under Roman rule and spent His first years as a refugee in Egypt.
The peace Scripture promises starts between a person and God and works outward from there. It is the kind that can sit in a hard December and still hold.
Lighting the second candle
Prince of Peace, we light this candle for peace. You were born into a world that was not at peace, and You came anyway. Quiet what is restless in this house. Where there is a quarrel we have not settled, help us settle it. Where someone we love is far from You, bring them near. Let Your peace rule in our hearts. Amen.
6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from that time and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of Hosts will accomplish this.
Isaiah 9:6-7
13 And suddenly there appeared with the angel a great multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying:
14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests!”
Luke 2:13-14
Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled; do not be afraid.
John 14:27
The third candle, the pink one, is lit on December 13. The angel's first words to the shepherds were do not be afraid, and the next were good news of great joy for all the people. Joy in Advent is not a mood you are asked to produce. It is the right response to news that is actually good.
If this has been a hard year, the third Sunday can feel like the wrong week to be told to rejoice. Paul wrote "rejoice in the Lord always" from prison, which is worth knowing before deciding he did not understand.
Lighting the third candle
Father, we light this candle for joy. Thank You for news good enough for shepherds and wise men alike, and for a Savior who came for all the people, including us. Where joy is hard to find this year, give it anyway, the kind that does not depend on how the week went. We rejoice in You. Amen.
10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid! For behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people:
11 Today in the city of David a Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord!
Luke 2:10-11
The LORD your God is among you; He is mighty to save. He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you with His love; He will rejoice over you with singing.”
Zephaniah 3:17
The LORD has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Psalm 126:3
The fourth candle is lit on December 20, the last Sunday before Christmas. John's gospel has no manger scene, but John 3:16 is its Christmas story in one sentence: God so loved the world that He gave His Son.
The order matters. God did not wait for the world to become lovable. First John says love is not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son. Christmas is what that looks like.
Lighting the fourth candle
God of love, we light this candle for love. You did not wait for us to deserve You. You sent Your Son into a world that had no room for Him, and He came anyway. Help us love like that this week, especially the people who are hardest to love. Thank You for loving us first. Amen.
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.
John 3:16-17
9 This is how God’s love was revealed among us: God sent His one and only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him.
10 And love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
1 John 4:9-10
But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8
The white candle in the center is lit on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning, with all four of the others. It stands for Jesus Himself, the light the whole wreath has been waiting for. John opens his gospel by saying the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
If your family only manages one evening of Advent, make it this one. Turn the lights down, light all five, and read Luke 2:1-20 aloud. For the day itself there are Christmas prayers for the table and Bible verses about Christmas.
Lighting the Christ candle
Lord Jesus, we light this candle for You. You are the light we have been waiting for, and the darkness has not overcome You. Thank You for coming as a baby, for living the life we could not, and for promising to come again. Be welcome in this house tonight, and every night after. Amen.
4 In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.
5 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1:4-5
The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14
6 While they were there, the time came for her Child to be born.
7 And she gave birth to her firstborn, a Son. She wrapped Him in swaddling cloths and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Luke 2:6-7
Twenty-five readings, one a day from December 1 to Christmas. The first sixteen follow the promise through the Old Testament, from the garden to the last of the prophets. The last nine are the Christmas story itself, ending with the shepherds on Christmas Day.
Each takes a few minutes, and they work as well read aloud after dinner as they do on your own. The same readings are a plan in the Great Faith app, which keeps your place for you.
December 1
The first promise · Genesis 3:8-15
Right after the first sin, God promises that a son of Eve will crush the serpent's head. Advent starts here.
December 2
A blessing for every family · Genesis 12:1-3
God tells Abraham that all the families of the earth will be blessed through him, the first hint that this promise is for everyone.
December 3
A ruler from Judah · Genesis 49:8-10
Jacob's last words to his sons: the scepter will not depart from Judah. Jesus is born into Judah's line.
December 4
A star out of Jacob · Numbers 24:15-17
A prophet hired to curse Israel blesses it instead, and sees a star and a scepter rising far in the future.
December 5
A prophet like Moses · Deuteronomy 18:15-18
Moses promises that God will raise up another prophet like him, who will speak God's own words.
December 6
A throne that lasts forever · 2 Samuel 7:8-16
God promises David a son whose kingdom will never end. Every king after David falls short of it, until Jesus.
December 7
The King the nations rage against · Psalm 2:1-12
A psalm about God's anointed King, whom He calls His Son, and whom the rulers of the earth cannot overthrow.
December 8
God with us · Isaiah 7:10-14
A sign for a frightened king: a virgin will conceive and bear a son, and call Him Immanuel. Matthew quotes it.
December 9
A light in the darkness · Isaiah 9:1-7
The people walking in darkness have seen a great light, because a child has been born to us.
December 10
A shoot from Jesse's stump · Isaiah 11:1-10
David's family tree looks cut down to the stump, and a new shoot grows from it anyway.
December 11
Prepare the way · Isaiah 40:1-11
Comfort for a people in exile, and a voice calling to prepare the way for the LORD. John the Baptist will be that voice.
December 12
The servant who suffers · Isaiah 53:1-12
The child in the manger is headed for the cross. Isaiah saw that too, seven centuries before.
December 13
The LORD our righteousness · Jeremiah 23:5-6
A righteous Branch from David's line, a King whose very name is The LORD Our Righteousness.
December 14
Out of Bethlehem · Micah 5:2-5
A ruler will come from Bethlehem, a town small among the clans of Judah. The scribes quoted this to Herod when the wise men arrived.
December 15
Your King comes, humble · Zechariah 9:9
Israel's King arrives humble and riding on a donkey. His birth was like that too.
December 16
The messenger, then silence · Malachi 3:1-4
God promises to send a messenger ahead of Him. Then the Old Testament ends, and heaven is quiet for about four hundred years.
December 17
The family tree · Matthew 1:1-17
Three sets of fourteen generations from Abraham to Jesus, with some surprising names in them. God kept every promise along the way.
December 18
The silence ends · Luke 1:5-25
An old priest named Zechariah is told that he and Elizabeth will have a son. The four hundred years are over.
December 19
Gabriel visits Mary · Luke 1:26-38
Mary is told she will bear the Son of the Most High, and she answers that she is the Lord's servant.
December 20
Joseph's dream · Matthew 1:18-25
Joseph plans to end the engagement quietly, until an angel tells him to take Mary home and name the child Jesus.
December 21
Mary's song · Luke 1:39-56
Mary visits Elizabeth, the baby leaps, and Mary sings about a God who lifts up the humble.
December 22
Zechariah's song · Luke 1:57-80
John is born, Zechariah can speak again, and his first words are a song about the God who has come to redeem His people.
December 23
The Word became flesh · John 1:1-14
John tells Christmas from the beginning of time: the Word who made the world came and lived among us.
December 24
No room · Luke 2:1-7
A census sends Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem, and the Son of God is laid in a manger. Christmas Eve.
December 25
Good news of great joy · Luke 2:8-20
Angels announce the birth to shepherds on the night shift, and the shepherds go to see for themselves. Merry Christmas.
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On Sunday, November 29. Advent always begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, so the date moves between November 27 and December 3. It ends on Christmas Eve.
Most churches name them hope, peace, joy and love, with one more lit each Sunday. Some use the older names: the Prophets', Bethlehem, Shepherds' and Angels' candles. The white candle in the center is the Christ candle, lit on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.
It is lit on the third Sunday, which the church has long called Gaudete Sunday (Latin for rejoice) after Philippians 4:4. Purple marks a season of preparation, and the pink candle is a pause halfway through to rejoice. It usually stands for joy.
The word and the season are not. Churches have kept Advent since about the fifth century. What it remembers is all through Scripture: the prophets' promises of a coming Savior, and the promise that He will come again.
No. Four candles on a plate do the same job, and so does reading the daily passages with no candles at all. The wreath is a help, not a requirement.
Scripture quotations are from the Berean Standard Bible, which is free of copyright restrictions for use on websites. Read the full Bible on Great Faith.