Moravian star

Moravian Stars in the Strietzelmarkt in Dresden

A Moravian star half done

A Moravian star (German: Herrnhuter Stern) is an illuminated piece of Advent or Christmas 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; in Germany, they are known as Herrnhut stars, named for the Moravian Mother Community in Saxony, Germany, where they were first commercially produced.

History

The first Moravian star is known to have originated in the 1830s at the Moravian Boy's School in Niesky, Germany, most probably as a geometry lesson or project. The first mention is of a 110-point star for the 50th anniversary of the Paedagogium (classical school for boys) in Niesky. Around 1880, Peter Verbeek, an alumnus of the school, began making the stars and their instructions available for sale through his bookstore. ^{[1] [2]} His son Harry went on to found the Herrnhut Star Factory, which was the main source of stars until World War I. Although damaged at the end of World War II during which Herrnhut was heavily damaged, the Star Factory resumed manufacturing them. Briefly taken over by the Communist DDR government in the 1950s, the factory was returned to the Moravian Church-owned Abraham Dürninger Company, which continues to make the stars in Herrnhut^[3] Other star-making companies and groups have sprung up since then. Some Moravian congregations have congregation members who build and sell the stars as fund raisers.

Cultural Importance

Although the star originated in the church's schools as a geometry lesson, it was soon adopted throughout the Moravian Church as an Advent symbol. At the time, Moravian Congregations were inhabited exclusively by Moravians and the church owned and controlled all property. Daily life was centered on their Christian faith and there was no distinction between the secular and the sacred, even in their daily activities. Everything was considered worship. It did not take long for the stars to go from a pastime for children to an occupation for the congregation.

Moravian stars continue to be a popular Christmas and Advent decoration throughout the world. The stars are often seen in Moravian nativity and putz displays as a representation of the Star of Bethlehem. Large advent stars shine in the dome of the Frauenkirche in Dresden and over the altar of the Thomaskirche where Johann Sebastian Bach is buried in Leipzig. The city of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, founded by Moravians in 1766, uses the Moravian star as their official Christmas street decoration. In addition, a 31-foot Moravian star, one of the largest in the world, sits atop the North Tower of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center during the Advent and Christmas seasons. ^[4]

The use of the stars during the Advent and Christmas season is also a tradition in the West Indies, Greenland, Suriname, Labrador, Central America, South and East Africa and Ladakh in India and parts of Scandinavia, wherever the Moravian Church has sent missionaries.

Types of Stars

There are many forms of Moravian stars, but the most commonly seen and most widely available is the 26-point form, composed of eighteen square and eight triangular cone shaped points. This shape is technically known as a Great Stellated Rhombicuboctahedron. Each face of the geometric solid in the middle, the Rhombicuboctahedron, serves as the base for the "stellations" or starburst points. No matter how many points a star has, a Moravian star has a regular shape, based on polyhedrons. There are Moravian stars with 20, 26, 32, 50, 64 and 110 points that are commonly hand-made in the Moravian schools. The variety comes from the division of the bases of the points---using an octagonal face instead of a square face, etc. For example, the common 26-point Moravian Star becomes a 50-point Star when the squares and triangles that normally make up the faces of the polyhedron become octagons and hexagons. This leaves a 4-sided trapezoidal-shaped hole in the corners of the faces. This is filled with an irregular four sided point. These 4-sided points form a "starburst" in the middle of what looks like a regular 26-point star.

Simple paper decorations made from four folded strips of paper are sometimes incorrectly called "Moravian" stars, but are known as German stars, Swedish stars, Bethlehem stars, or more correctly as Froebel Stars, named after Friedrich Fröbel, the German educator who invented them.

^{[5] [6]}

References

1. ^ "The Moravian Star", retrieved 8-10-2007
2. ^ "History of the Moravian Star", retrieved 8-10-2007
3. ^ Herrnhuter Stern GmbH, retrieved on 8-10-2007
4. ^ "Annual Star Lighting Service", Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, retrieved 12-22-2010
5. ^ "Star Quantity: Little White Slips of Paper Become Thousands of Christmas Decorations, Winston-Salem Journal, 11-19-2006
6. ^ "How To Make Stars", Nagle Design, retrieved 8-10-2007

External links

• Make a Froebel Star
• Make a Moravian Star

This article incorporates information from the revision as of December 24, 2006 of the equivalent article on the German Wikipedia.