Former Moravian burial customs

Corpse House, ca. 1875. Moravian Archives Bethlehem, PA.

It was an Moravian custom that the trombone choir announce the death of a congregant … by playing the chorale O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden. A second chorale was played that identified the choir of the deceased. The word "choir" is not a singing group but it is the term the early Moravians used to mean a group within the church based on age, sex, and marital status.

The deceased was then placed in the “Corpse House” or Leichen Kappelchenor.  A fellow congregant, sat by the body, night and day until the burial. The body was prepared by washing and wrapped in a white shroud. 

A church service preceded the burial which ends with the reading of a memoir or “Lebenslauf” of the departed. The memoir is either autobiographical or written by a loved one. The practice was instituted so that the deceased might have a voice at their own funeral. 

The congregation then sang hymns and formed a procession to the “Corpse House”. The body in a casket was carried to the graveyard - God's Acre, is it was and is called. 

Surrounding the grave the congregation’s singing and trombone choir playing intertwined in beloved Moravian chorals. A love feast was the usual conclusion to the funeral service. — Selected quotes from Lehigh Valley History