12/17/2025
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History of the Moravian Star in North Carolina from NC Expatriates
On the First Day of Christmas, North Carolina gave to me….
The Moravian Star.
Perhaps the most uniquely North Carolina Christmas decoration is the 26-point Moravian Star.
100 years before Martin Luther ignites the Protestant Reformation, Jan Hus and his followers attempt to reform the Catholic Church. For his trouble, Hus is eventually tried and burned at the stake in 1415. But his movement survives to become one of the very first Protestant denominations: the Moravians.
This rebellion against Catholicism begins in Bohemia and Moravia, that largely German area that is today part of the Czech Republic. For centuries, the Moravians were forced into hiding, until nobleman Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf allowed the group to settle on his lands in 1722. (Remember the NC history story from a few weeks back about the Winston-Salem Hotel Zinzendorf that tragically burned? It was named for this Count Zinzendorf.) The Brethren, or Brothers, establish a small village known as Herrnhut (in present-day Saxony) where the group, along with Count Zinzendorf, worked to create an accepting community. Herrnhut rapidly became the center for the Moravian movement, and the name itself translates into “the Lord’s Watch,” where residents were to watch for God as God was to watch out for them.
It is here the stars first appear in the 1830s. Originally they were craft projects to teach geometry. However, the stars were quickly adopted by the Moravian Church as a symbol of the birth of Jesus and represented the Star of Bethlehem. Traditionally, the star is hung on the first Sunday of Advent and remains up until Epiphany, January 6, or the time of the coming of the Magi.
The Moravian communities in North Carolina quickly adopt them as well, and their popularity quickly radiates out from Forsyth County across the state.
The Christmas Tree actually appears at about the same time, Introduced by the thousands of Hessian Soldiers who stay behind after the Revolution. Later the waves of German immigrants who flock to America’s shores cling to the Christmas Tree as a symbol of German culture. The first documented Christmas Tree in America is in Williamsburg in 1842, at the home of a German immigrant professor at William and Mary. It is decorated with candles and Moravian Stars.
Today, the porches and front doors of a majority of North Carolina homes across the state are lit by Moravian Stars for the holiday season. The Moravian Star is the single decoration that unites us all across the state as North Carolinians.
The star proclaims the hope of Advent: The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. It is the message of the Advent star, which hung over the humble manger of the infant Jesus, who would later say: “I am the bright and Morning Star.” It is the star of promise, the star of fulfillment, and the star of hope.
~ Kevin E. Spencer, Author, North Carolina Expatriates
