Christmas Post: Christmas Candles

Photo Credit: Unity Moravian Church, Winston-Salem

Bishop Johann Michael Graff was the first resident Moravian bishop in North Carolina. He introduced a Christmas custom that children and adults of the Wachovia would cherish - to this day. 

At the love feast on Christmas Eve Bishop Graff gave each child a lighted candle. This is a custom that began in Marienborn in Germany in 1747. It gradually spread to Moravian congregations throughout the world. 

In the Wachovia of North Carolina the first of these candle distributions was held 1762. 

The Symbolism of the Candle

The candles distributed to Moravians in America were made from beeswax. Beeswax, considered the purest of all waxes suggested the purity of Christ. 

The candle, giving its life as it burned, suggested the sacrifice of the sinless Christ for sinful humanity. The light also signified Christ - as the light of the world. 

The red trim brings to mind the blood of Jesus - shed for the salvation of those who turn to Him in faith. 

Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. John 6:53-56.

The Bethlehem Diary

The town diary has a full account, a free translation of which is:

At eight o’clock the children assembled for their Vigils service in the congregation chapel. After the choir sang the old Christmas hymn, “Today we celebrate the birth,” Brother Peter Boehler talked about the birth of the Savior, using as illustration the Christmas Eve painting which was illuminated and surrounded with the Daily Texts from the past two days. The children took part with Christmas verses, singing them with spirit and tenderness. Then each received a gift as a reminder of the greatest and most wonderful gift when the Savior gave himself to us.

And, at last, each was given a wax candle, lighted while hymns were being sung, and before one was aware of it, more than 250 candles were ablaze, producing a charming effect and a very agreeable odor, especially as they sang the concluding hymn.

Brother Peter dismissed them with the wish that their hearts would burn as brightly toward the Child Jesus, as the candles were burning. Then they went happily homeward with the still-burning candles in their hands.