Showing posts with label Moravian Star. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Moravian Star. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

A Moravian In Paris ...


“I photograph to find out what something will look like photographed.”

  ~ Garry Winogrand

    ~ 1928-1984

  ~ American street photographer from the Bronx, New York, known for his portrayal of U.S. life and its social issues, in the mid-20th century. Though he photographed in California, Texas and elsewhere, Winogrand was essentially a New York photographer.

An umbrella portraying the Eiffel Tower and the Moravian Star are the stars showcased in a window display of “Paisley Sun – A Luminous Gift Shop” in historic downtown Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Scenes of Main Street, feted for Christmas, are reflected in the window on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, when the area was bustling with early Christmas shoppers.

A Moravian star (German: Herrnhuter Stern) is an illuminated Advent, Christmas or Epiphany decoration popular in Germany and in places in America and Europe where there are Moravian congregations. The stars take their English name from the Moravian Church, originating in Moravia. In Germany, they are known as Herrnhut stars, named after the Moravian Mother Community in Saxony, Germany, where they were first commercially produced.

Bethlehem is known as The Christmas City. On Christmas Eve 1741, in a stable, while a small group of Moravians were singing a hymn with the stanza “Not Jerusalem, Lowly Bethlehem” Count Nicolaus Ludwig Von Zinzendorf christened this little town “Bethlehem.” Since that time Christmas in Bethlehem has been central to the city’s identity. From the first documented decorated Christmas tree in America to the efforts of the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce to get Bethlehem nicknamed “Christmas City USA” in 1937, to the current time when both sides of the river boast Christmas markets filled with artisan craft, retail and food vendors, Bethlehem is rife with one Christmas celebration after another.

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Follow His Star ...



“Morning Star, O cheering sight! Ere thou
cam’st, how dark earth’s night!
Morning Star, O cheering sight! Ere thou
cam’st, how dark earth’s night!
Jesus mine, in me shine; in me shine, Jesus mine;
Fill my heart with light divine.

Morning Star, thy glory bright far excels
the sun’s clear light.
Morning Star, thy glory bright far excels
the sun’s clear light.
Jesus be, constantly, Constantly, Jesus be
More than thousand suns to me.

Thy glad beams, thou Morning Star, cheer the
nations near and far.
Thy glad beams, thou Morning Star, cheer the
nations near and far.
Thee we own, Lord alone, Lord alone, thee we
own,
Our dear Savior, God’s dear son.

Morning Star, my soul’s true light, tarry not,
dispel my night.
Morning Star, my soul’s true light, tarry not,
dispel my night.
Jesus mine, in me shine; in me shine, Jesus mine;
Fill my heart with light divine.”
                
               ~ “Morning Star, O Cheering Sight !”
                             ~ Moravian Carol
     ~ Words: Johannes Scheffler (1657),    
Translation by Bennett Harvey, Jr. (1885)
               ~   Music: Francis F. Hagen, 1836
         In Moravian tradition, this is often sung as part of a Christmas Eve service, with a child as the leader.
                                             

A Moravian star glows with the warmth of Christmas on a cold December evening at Emmaus Moravian Church, founded in 1747 in Emmaus, Pennsylvania. The star shines over a Nativity scene placed on the church lawn during Christmastime.

This scene in sepia could be part of a Moravian Christmas putz, in dreams of Christmastide or a nostalgic Yuletide film – think “It’s A Wonderful Life” – but it’s very real, just as following Christ’s star is as important today as it was at his birth.

A Moravian star (German: Herrnhuter Stern) is an illuminated Advent, Christmas or Epiphany decoration popular in Germany and in places in American and Europe where there are Moravian congregations. The stars take their English name from the Moravian Church, originating in Moravia. In Germany, they are known as Herrnhut stars, named after the Moravian Mother Community in Saxony, Germany, where they were first commercially produced.

Merry Christmas, Happy Christmas everyone!