Religious roots
On
Christmas Eve in
1741,
Nicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf of
Saxony,
Germany, leading a small group of
Moravians, founded the city of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in the "Forks of the Delaware" River along the banks of the
Monocacy Creek by the
Lehigh River. They named the settlement after the town of
Bethlehem in Judea, the birthplace of
Jesus Christ.
In
1762, Bethlehem became home to the first water works in America to pump water for public usage. While
George Washington and his troops stayed in
Valley Forge, his personal effects were stored at the farm of James Burnside, which is now a historical museum (Burnside Plantation).
[2] The prosperous village was incorporated into a free borough in the County of Northampton in 1845.
On March 27, 1900, the Bach Choir of Bethlehem presented the American debut of Lutheran composer
Johann Sebastian Bach's
Mass in B Minor in the city's Moravian church.
The "Christmas City"
In
1937, the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce, mindful of Bethlehem's historic tie to the
Christmas story since its founding, adopted the nickname "Christmas City, USA" for Bethlehem. Many tourists now come to Bethlehem each year at Christmas time to see the historic downtown and the 81 foot (25 m) high electric "
Star of Bethlehem" on South Mountain. The city's
Musikfest festival in late summer can also draw more than one million people. Since the 1990s, the Bach Choir of Bethlehem has recorded four "Christmas In Bethlehem" volumes.
The Christmas Star
The distinctive Moravian star in
Central Moravian church
The Moravian star on the top of
South Mountain
On December 7, 1937, at a grand ceremony, Mrs. Marion Brown Grace pulled a large switch to light the new Christmas street lights and a large wooden star. Mrs. Grace was the daughter of a former South Bethlehem burgess, Charles F. Brown and wife of Eugene Grace, President of Bethlehem Steel Corporation. Hundreds of Bethlehem’s leading citizens attended the ceremony and thousands more listened to the speeches and musical performances on the radio. The switch for the lights was located in the ballroom of the Bethlehem Hotel. This was the first year that Mayor Robert Pfeifle and the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce adopted the nickname "Christmas City, USA" for Bethlehem. Donations from the community were raised for the street decorations. The Globe Times underwrote the expense of the large wooden star on the top of South Mountain, at a cost of $460. The star was attached to two wooden poles and was smaller than the current star. The star was created with four wooden planks, overlapped to create an eight point star. The dimensions were 60’ high, 51’ wide lit by 150 bulbs, 50 watts each. The installation of the star was done by PP&L and Bethlehem Water Department. The star was erected on the top of South Mountain, on property owned by the Water Department, located in Lower Saucon Township. The lighting ceremony, in the Bethlehem Hotel, was an appropriate location. This was the site of the first building in Bethlehem, a two room log house. On Christmas Eve in 1741, the original settlers were conducting their evening worship in this building. As their benefactor, Count Zinzendorf, observed the farm animals that shared the space and listened to the words of the hymn they sang, “Not Jerusalem, But Lowly Bethlehem.” he proclaimed the name of the settlement to be Bethlehem. The people gathered at the 1937 ceremony also heard those same words when the Bach Choir, under the direction of Dr. T. Edgar Shields, sang the old German hymn “Jesu, Rufe Mich (Jesus, Call Thou Me),” by Adam Drese. Malcolm Gross, the Mayor of Allentown, Joseph Morrison, Easton’s Chief Executive, Bethlehem School administrators, and prominent church officials were also there to celebrate. In 1939 the wooden star was replaced with a star made of Bethlehem steel, at a cost of $5000. It had eight rays with the main horizontal ray extended eighty-one feet and the main vertical ray was fifty-three feet long. In 1967, the star was redesigned, and Plexiglas was installed to protect the 250 light bulbs, 50 watts each. It was installed on the old steel frame which was ninety-one feet high and twenty-five feet wide at the base with a depth of five feet, set in concrete. In the summer of 2006, the city attended to some much needed repairs of the base. Rust was scraped off the steel base then it was primed and painted at a cost of $25,000. This is the star we see today. The star is surrounded by a 9-foot chain link fence topped with razor wire. A crew of municipal electricians changes the bulbs every two years. It can be a dangerous job so the crew wears safety gear and avoids bad weather. Beginning in the mid-'90s, the star was lit from 4:30 p.m. until midnight, every day of the year. This schedule continues today. However during World War II, from 1941 to 1945, none of the Christmas decorations in Bethlehem were lit. At the time, Bethlehem officials explained that the lit star made "too good of an air raid target" and “during the global strife it didn't seem right for the lights to be all lit up when our boys were out in the darkness fighting for us." When lit, the star can be seen from as far as Wind Gap, 20 miles away. The star has become an important symbol for Bethlehem. Blue-and-white signs surround the city and direct tourists to "Follow the Star to Bethlehem."
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