European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - December 20, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Moravian tradition gives Christmas an extra measure of dignity by Sarah Ferrell new York times s night Falls there Are lights everywhere you look. Lights and Trees and stars. Single White candles Burn in each Small windowpane of the old Stone buildings on Church Street a procession of hundreds of while lighted Christmas Trees marches Down main Street and across the Hiil to Hill Bridga Multi pointed Parchment stars illuminated from within. Hang Over porches and a White giant More than 80 Cal High Al the longest of its eight Points glimmers across the Valley from South Mountain. Christmas has come to Christmas City u s.a., Bethlehem. A. Bethlehem has been in the Christmas business Lor Hall a Century. The first giant  was set in place in 1935, and Bridges and streets were lighted for Christmas of 1937 yet the 1own  blessedly free of any hint of Santa a Village Rudolph the red nosed Reindeer Kitsch. Christmas May be Money in the Bank for the local merchants but it s also gracious dignified and seriously Estiva. The season is not rushed the lights go on Only on the first sunday of Advent the  season Hal encompasses the our sundays preceding Christmas. The town s main Street Wilh its snug Cales and Bright shops set in restored victorian storefronts is warm and cozy suggesting the Joys Charles Dickens might write about. An even older tradition that of Bethlehem s moravian settlers is what gives Bethlehem s Christmas its refreshingly noncommercial flavor indeed the moravian protestants who came from Bohemia and Germany As missionaries to the american indians and settled in the Lehigh Valley in the 1730s, started the whole thing. In 1741, their settlement was visited by their German Patron count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf. According 1o the Story when the Community mat Lor Vigi services on Christmas eve the count led them in singing a hymn that begins not Jerusalem lowly Bethlehem twas thai gave us Chrisl to save  the event is recalled by a plaque on an exterior Wall of the hotel Bethlehem which stands on the Sale of the log stable in which the service was conducted As Well As by a mural in its Pioneer room the lobby of the hotel Bethlehem is snagged with greens and coloured lights and contains several gaily decorated Trees. On a sunday morning the desk clerk can be heard humming carols to himself and Here is a Happy Bustle As tour groups designated by name tags prepare to move into action. Come on Jaybird let s Fly says a Southern voice. And Fly hey do to the nearby Central moravian Church which built in 1bq3-6, is the heart of both the historic District and the contemporary moravian Community. Outside the Church is topped by a colonnaded Belfry crowned with a dome from which a so member trombone choir another moravian tradition heralds the coming of Christmas and other important festivals the Interior which can  up to 1,500 people is austere with a curved sounding Board this is a preacher s Church and the acoustics Are Superb. An enormous 26-pointed  the moravian  Hal originated in Germany a Century or More ago glows yellow above the two tiered pulpit poinsettias and bouquets of red and yellow roses punctuate the Row of decorative columns at the front of the Church and the Winter Sun streams through the Plain Glass windows. The Church welcomes visitors and some groups return year after year to participate in tha Advent services. The Christmas eve Vigil service at which the hymn thai gave the town its name is still Sung is however open Only to members of the congregation and their families alter Church visitors May Reward themselves with the hotel Bethlehem s sundays Only Hunt breakfast a staggering Buffel of scrapple and Sticky buns and homemade sausage and Apple fritters and pies and Well you get the idea All you can eat and they mean it is 112, including lax and gratuity. Another moravian tradition in which visitors can take part is the Christmas Putz the word derives from the German word meaning to decorate a nativity scene Sot in a tiny landscape made of natural greens and stones and mosses. While most pulses decorate private households both the East Hilts moravian Church on put town Road and the Central moravian Church have Community Putzeys that Are open to the Public. The Central moravian Putz in the Church s Christian education building is a Small scale son a Lumiere you shuffle in and find a  in Semi darkness and then As the Christmas Story is heard on tape spotlights pick out Lille groups of carved figures representing such scenes As the annunciation to the shepherds the heavenly Host in full song the nativity itself the flight into Egypt. Then the auditorium lights go up so that visitors can crowd up to the Small stage on which the Pulz is built and inspect the More than 120 carved and coloured figures both old and newly made. Seen As a whole the composition is that of an Early Renaissance painting Wilh the simultaneous narratives. There Tor example Are the magi following their  adoring the child in the Manger appearing before Herod and on the Way out of Jerusalem All at the same Lima. After these charming miniatures the life size municipal nativity scene set up in the wide windswept City Center Plaza. Looks out of scale. Along main Street shop windows Are filled with High Quality children s clothing and toys and jewelry and imparted woolens and especially Christmas tree ornaments of the most nostalgic sort. This is the place to Stok up on ornaments in the shape of father Christmas a skinnier version of Santa Glauser cats or dogs or elephants or Bunches of grapes or bananas or Bright parrots or frogs or mushrooms or Angels that look beguiling by like the heroines of 19th-Cenlury melodramas Golden ringlets and All. Prices Starl at $2.50. The moravian bookshop closed sundays carries several sizes of Spiky stars made of Gold or Silver paper $2 to j2.50 each that Are guaranteed to we in the gaps of the ski Piest tree big Parchment moravian stars to hang in a doorway Are also available $12.50 for a 22-Inch . Adjacent to the bookshop is the moravian Cookshop which Sells cookware and crafts and jams and Honey and Candy the two shops Are joined by a pleasant cafe serving Tea and Coffee and pastries and Light lunches. The gift shop of the Goundie House museum an 1b10 Brick townhouse farther along main Street offers even More nostalgia especially painted Glass Light bulb covers $4.50 to $5.50 in the form of peacocks and Teddy bears and santas and trains and the like. They slip Over miniature tree tights held in place by a rubber Gasket and mimic the kind of fanciful German or japanese made Christmas tree Light bulbs that would seem to have vanished with world War ii. In addition to the moravian bookshop Cookshop cafe there Are several other Nice places on or near main Street where you can Stop in to nibble on a elite something. The most attractive of these judged against some pretty stiff Competition is the viennese pastries Gate at the Corner of main and Market whose windows Are decked out Lor Christmas with a Forest of Gingerbread Trees and Gingerbread trains and air planes. Inside there Are Little Marble topped tables and a menu of luncheon dishes and such picker uppers As say Coffee and Sacher Lorte or Black Fores cake for �2.25 to �3. A Little farther along main Street the Sun inn serves Light lunches and a four course $15,95 dinner in a series of plainly decorated second floor dining rooms. The first floor of the inn is a restoration of the original moravian inn with its polished Wood floors and even More polished Copper and a blazing fire in a great fireplace. When one s appetite for shopping and eating flags there Are other museums among them the Kempner museum on North new Street with its collections of Domestic furniture and decorative arts the apothecary museum lucked away behind the moravian bookshop and the antique fire engine museum on main Street itself As Well As More old moravian Sites. Saturday december 20, 1986 the stars and stripes Page 17