Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 60, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 March 1899 — The Moravian Way. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Moravian Way.

One of the most significant and picturesque celebrations of Easter is that of the Moravian Christians, of whom there are many congregations in the United States. At Bethlehem, Pa., and other towns where Moravians abound some musicians with brass instruments go at earliest dawn to the roof of the church and play music signifying the calling forth of the dead. The people immediately flock to the church and begin the service of the day, most of it being musical. At a giveq signal the entire congregation rise, and, preceded by the ministers and trumpeters, leave the church and march to the cemetery. In Moravian cemeteries all the gravestones are alike —small, flat slabs laid upon the graves, “for,” say the simple, literal people, “in the grave all men are equal.” The procedure of the service is so timed that the musico-prayerful rejoicing reaches its highest expression just as the sun rises.