Advent
Four weeks of waiting, kept on purpose
Advent 2026 begins on Sunday, November 29, 2026 and ends on Thursday, December 24, 2026. Below: every key date for the season, what the Church asks of you, and the prayers that belong to it.
Advent 2026 — Key Dates
Advent Dates 2026–2034
The date moves each year because it is fixed to Easter, which is the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the spring equinox.
| Year | Advent begins | Ash Wednesday | Palm Sunday | Holy Thursday | Good Friday | Easter Sunday |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | November 29, 2026 | February 18, 2026 | March 29, 2026 | April 2, 2026 | April 3, 2026 | April 5, 2026 |
| 2027 | November 28, 2027 | February 10, 2027 | March 21, 2027 | March 25, 2027 | March 26, 2027 | March 28, 2027 |
| 2028 | December 3, 2028 | March 1, 2028 | April 9, 2028 | April 13, 2028 | April 14, 2028 | April 16, 2028 |
| 2029 | December 2, 2029 | February 14, 2029 | March 25, 2029 | March 29, 2029 | March 30, 2029 | April 1, 2029 |
| 2030 | December 1, 2030 | March 6, 2030 | April 14, 2030 | April 18, 2030 | April 19, 2030 | April 21, 2030 |
| 2031 | November 30, 2031 | February 26, 2031 | April 6, 2031 | April 10, 2031 | April 11, 2031 | April 13, 2031 |
| 2032 | November 28, 2032 | February 11, 2032 | March 21, 2032 | March 25, 2032 | March 26, 2032 | March 28, 2032 |
| 2033 | November 27, 2033 | March 2, 2033 | April 10, 2033 | April 14, 2033 | April 15, 2033 | April 17, 2033 |
| 2034 | December 3, 2034 | February 22, 2034 | April 2, 2034 | April 6, 2034 | April 7, 2034 | April 9, 2034 |
The St Andrew Christmas novena begins on his feast, November 30, and runs to Christmas Eve.
Lighting a wreath at home? Which candle, which Sunday — with this year’s dates, why the third is rose, and a prayer for each week.
Going to confession this season? A full examination of conscience — by the Ten Commandments, and it prints on a plain sheet.
What Is Advent?
Advent is the season that opens the Church’s year. It begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas and ends at nightfall on Christmas Eve, running between twenty-two and twenty-eight days depending on where the Sundays fall. It looks backward and forward at once, and that double focus is the whole character of the season. The first half turns toward Christ’s coming at the end of time. Only in the second half, from December 17, does the liturgy turn decisively toward Bethlehem. Advent is not four weeks of Christmas. It is four weeks of waiting, and the waiting is the practice. The wreath is the most familiar sign of it: an evergreen circle with four candles, one lit for each Sunday, so the light in the room grows week by week. Three candles are violet and one is rose. The rose candle is lit on the third Sunday, Gaudete Sunday, named for the opening word of that day’s liturgy, which means rejoice. Halfway through, the Church lifts the tone briefly, exactly as it does on Laetare Sunday in Lent. Violet is the colour of the season, the same as Lent, and for a related reason: this is a period of preparation with a penitential edge. But the edge is gentler here. Advent is not a fast. It is an unhurrying, and in a culture that begins celebrating Christmas in November it has become one of the harder disciplines the Church asks for, precisely because it asks you to wait while everyone around you has already started.
Observance & Rules
There are no obligatory fasts or abstinences in Advent in the Latin Church. It is a season of preparation rather than penance in the strict sense, and the older tradition of fasting through Advent survives now only as a custom. The Sundays of Advent carry the ordinary Sunday obligation. Christmas Day itself is a holy day of obligation, and a Mass celebrated on the evening of December 24 fulfils it. In many countries the Immaculate Conception on December 8 falls inside Advent and is a holy day of obligation. Whether it obliges varies by country, so check locally. The Gloria is omitted at Sunday Mass through Advent, which is why its return on Christmas night lands the way it does.
Practical Guide
The single most effective thing you can do with Advent is to not start Christmas early at home. Keep the tree bare for a week, or put the crib out empty and leave the manger unfilled until the night itself. Children remember the empty manger far longer than the full one. Light the wreath at the same time each week, ideally before a meal, and let it be short. Four weeks of two minutes will hold. Twenty minutes will not survive the second Sunday. The daily readings of Advent are among the most beautiful in the year, and they are short. Ten minutes with the day’s Gospel, at the same hour, is a complete Advent practice on its own. Go to confession before Christmas rather than after. Parishes schedule extra times in the third week for exactly this, and the queues are shortest early. And if the season arrives and you have not prepared anything, start on whichever Sunday you notice. Advent forgives a late start more easily than almost any other season, because waiting is something you can begin at any point.
Prayers for Advent
Scripture for This Season
Bible Verses About Hope
Scripture for holding on when the future feels dark, the hope that does not disappoint.
Bible Verses About Peace
Scripture for a troubled heart, an anxious mind, and a world that cannot give lasting rest.
Bible Verses About Faith
Scripture on believing what we cannot see, and the faith that moves mountains.
Where this falls in the year
- EarlierChrist the KingNovember 22, 2026
- LaterChristmasDecember 25, 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
Upcoming · Sep 23
St. Padre PioSee the full liturgical calendar — every feast this year, and an embed for your parish site.