Christmas 2020 is just around the corner.
Read here which days of the week the fourth Advent, Christmas Eve and the Christmas holidays fall.
Munich - Stars and fairy lights can already be seen on the house facades.
In the grocery stores, speculoos and gingerbread line the shelves and the first fir trees are set up in the city centers.
Despite the current
corona pandemic, due to which contacts are extremely limited at Christmas
, the anticipation for
Christmas 2020 is
increasing
.
Christmas 2020: This day of the week falls on Christmas Eve
December 24th falls on a
Thursday
this year
.
This year the
Advent season
started on
Sunday, November 29th
.
For Advent calendar users this means: The first door may only be opened
after the beginning of Advent
, which
lasts 26 days
this year
.
Christmas 2020: the dates at a glance
1st Advent: Sunday, November 29, 2020
2nd Advent: Sunday, December 6th, 2020
3rd Advent: Sunday, December 13th, 2020
4th Advent: Sunday, December 20, 2020
Christmas Eve: Thursday December 24, 2020
Christmas Day: Friday, December 25th, 2020
Christmas Day: Saturday, December 26th, 2020
Video: what is celebrated at Christmas?
Christmas 2020: why is Christmas Eve always on December 24th?
There are fixed and movable public holidays in Germany.
Christmas Eve belongs to the first category and is
always on December 24th - this year on a Thursday
.
The day of the week, on the other hand, varies annually, so that Christmas Eve can fall on any day.
In addition, a church stipulation means that there must always be four Sundays before Christmas.
As
early as the 11th century, the church considered
that the
fourth Advent and Christmas Eve could also be on the same day
.
On December 3, 1038, at a synod in the Limburg monastery, Emperor Konrad II stipulated that the two festive days may coincide on one day.
Critics then accused him that in this case there would be less than four weeks of penance before the holidays.
But the emperor also had an answer to that:
Christmas
Eve is not yet
a Christmas holiday
.
Christmas begins with the service on the evening of December 24th.
The day itself can also be counted as part of the time of penance, whereby the duration of four weeks is observed.