Christmas in the South

"...the lovefeast remains one of the most cherished traditions of the Moravian Church and one that other non-Moravian churches have instituted in their own congregations. Lovefeasts were special services reserved for significant occasions, like Christmas."

-Nancy Smith Thomas, Moravian Christmas in the South

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A few years ago I found this little treasure on Amazon after I began searching for more information about the Moravian lovefeast and other traditions of the early Moravians here in North Carolina. I became interested in learning more about it after our church had a lovefeast on a Sunday evening in December. I was intrigued with this beautiful yet simple service of music, Scripture reading, and refreshments. The sweet buns came directly from the Old Salem bakery in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, about a two-hour drive from my home. While I had visited Old Salem two times with school groups, I didn't really focus on the Christmas traditions of the Moravians at that time, so I turned to Amazon.com to find a book that would tell me everything I wanted to know about the beautiful celebration of Christmas in the early settlement.

The first Moravian lovefeast in North Carolina took place in 1753 when a small group of settlers met together to celebrate the birth of Jesus. They held a Bible-based service of music, fellowship, and some simple foods on that Christmas eve so long ago. This tradition remains in many churches today. It all began when the Moravians in Herrnhut, Germany held their first lovefeast in 1727.  The people hung around after the service because they were so moved by the music and readings. A man named Count Zinzendorf  noticed that the people were standing around so he sent for some drink and food so the people could share a meal together. It was how they showed "agape," or Christian love for one another on that Christmas eve.

There are beautiful pictures, photographs, and more in this hardback volume that you can enjoy during this season of celebrating the birth of Jesus, For example, there is a drawing of men bringing in the Yule log, photographs of the many buildings of Old Salem, and recipes for Moravian Sugar Cake and Lovefeast Coffee. You'll enjoy looking at the pictures throughout the book. It makes a good gift for anyone who is a history buff or someone who is interested in Christian traditions at Christmas time. The book was written by Nancy Smith Thomas, a woman who worked at Old Salem Museums & Gardens for 18 years. Through the questions of visitors at the museum, she realized what topics the people were most interested in and she began her in-depth study of the Moravian culture and their celebration of Christmas. This is a wonderful book that I think you will enjoy this time of year.

I finished a great book for my book club this month, The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II by Denise Kiernan. I must admit that this story is new to me, but it shouldn't be. Somehow I never heard of it in any of my history classes, newspapers, or magazines. But as they say, it's never too late to learn, so here I am learning about an incredible group of people who changed history forever and made people begin to look at warfare in a completely different way. As you may recall, the Manhattan Project began in New York City and was the beginning of the creation of the atomic bomb in America. The project continued in other areas and eventually moved about 75,000 people to Eastern Tennessee (Oak Ridge) to work on things that were so secretive that they didn't even know themselves what they were really doing. Many of the employees at the project were young women from small towns who had never been away from home before. But they were lured by solid pay and the attraction that they were going to do something important for America, so they left their families and even their own children to move to Tennessee. The new employees of Oak Ridge lived in a "pre-fab" town built out of tiny temporary houses and large warehouses. They lived on muddy "streets" and had no indoor plumbing. They weren't allowed to cook their own food and had very little contact with the outside world  They were not allowed to discuss their work with anyone and their letters home were censored and marked up because NO ONE could know anything about the secret project going on in the Appalachian Mountains.


Some of "the Girls of Atomic City" are still alive - they are in their eighties and nineties today. They have given us important information about the events that led up to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WW II. To date, no other cities in the world have experienced a nuclear attack of this magnitude where thousands upon thousands of people were killed instantly. Yet these woman and others knew that they helped to end the war when other attempts to do so were ineffective. This book reminds me of some of the other "surprise" stories that I've read. It reminds me of books such as The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, The Boys in the Boat, Unbroken, and others. I enjoy books about things that really happened in the world, stories that perhaps were not very well-known in the beginning. I think you'll enjoy The Girls of Atomic City, and I look forward to discussing it with my book club.

I'm not sure what I'm going to read next, but I'm sure it will be another good one. Although I've read about 500 books in the past 30 years, I still find hidden gems and learn a lot in the process. I would love to hear your thoughts on today's post, so leave me a note. Your thoughts are always welcomed and appreciated.

Merry Christmas, and have a blessed holy season,

Melissa Hill
Book Blogger
www.onegoodbookblog.blogspot.com

 

Children's Christmas Books and Other Thoughts

 

"That day, Jonathan went to the Christmas service with the widow McDowell and Thomas. And that day in the churchyard the village children saw Jonathan throw back his head, showing his eyes as clear blue as an August sky, and laugh. No one ever called him 
Mr. Gloomy again."

From The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski and illustrated by P.J. Lynch.

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The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey is my favorite Christmas book for children of all ages. It was a gift to our son when he was just 7 years old, and it still holds a special place on my shelf. The book was first published in 1995 when our son was only 4 years old. Benjamin's great-grandfather bought him this book and several others in 1998, but my mom picked out the book and wrote inside the front cover so that we would remember who gave it to our little boy. It is a truly beautiful book. It comes with a CD reading so that you can just sit back and enjoy the story of hope, love, joy, and miracles.
One thing that sets this book apart from other children's book is the beautiful illustrations by Lynch, The pictures are so beautiful that you just want to tarry on each page.

The main character of the book is Jonathan Toomey, a sad woodcarver who has been very depressed since the death of his wife and baby. Everyone in the village knows him as a gloomy person who keeps to himself. One day his life slowly begins to change when a widow and her son, Thomas, knock on his door They ask him to carve a nativity set because they lost their set in their recent move. They ask Toomey to complete the set in time for Christmas, but he doesn't make any promises. The three people begin to get acquainted over time, and the heart of Toomey begins to change. As he carefully carves each person and animal who were at the First Christmas, he begins to feel love and joy in his heart. He actually made his Joseph figure to look serious and caring, he made Mary look humble and full of love, and he carved Baby Jesus as a smiling infant who reached up to touch his mother's face. As Mrs. McDowell and Thomas began to visit the woodcarver regularly, his heart slowly changed from a hardened, sad, lonely heart to a person who could enjoy life again. He completed the set by Christmas morning, attended the Christmas service with his new friends, and he felt pure joy for the first time in a very long time. It was truly a Christmas miracle. 

This book reminds me that there is always hope, no matter what you're going through. Miracles still happen today, so we shouldn't give up. Many of us are going through some hard times right now, and life is tough. But if there was hope for Jonathan Toomey, there is surely hope for all of us. Personally, I see this as a spiritual transformation in the life of the woodcarver, and I believe that the Baby Jesus is the place we should be looking for our joy, hope, and love.

There are some other Christmas books for children that I would like to recommend. I've enjoyed The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, Small One, The Legend of the Candy Cane, Christmas in the Big Woods, and The Polar Express.  For adults I recommend Skipping Christmas, The Christmas Train, and The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Some of these books are secular-based, while others are focused more on the spiritual meaning of Christmas. I'd love to know if you've read some of these and how you felt about them. I think my adult personal favorite is Christmas Train. Have you read any of these? If so, which ones are your favorites?

In the past month I read Lilac Girls: A Novel and Thomas Jefferson Dreams of Sally Hemmings. Both were amazing books. We had some good discussion at our book club about Lilac Girls which made it more fun for me. The details in this historical novel are right on point. If you look at other websites you will find the historical background of Lilac Girls to be very accurate. Martha Hall Kelly, the author, did a TON of research in order to write this novel based on the lives of women during WW II, most of whom lived in Europe. 

I'm currently reading The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II by Denise Kiernan. It's the current book for our club. This is a true story about men and women who were hired to do some sort of secret work in East Tennessee during the war, and their pay was very good. I haven't read enough of the book to make a lot of comments about it, but I'm enjoying it a lot. It was published in 2013 and has been a New York Times Bestseller. I enjoy books about events in our history that somehow were never our radars so we are just now learning about them. There are so, so many great books such as The Boys in the Boat, Unbroken, The Hiding Place, and The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge that inspire us through true events that happened around the world. I'm just now sort of discovering some of these gems that are true stories about extraordinary people who made a difference in the world. Historical novels are great as well. Getting back to The Girls of Atomic City...I've never heard of this story before, so it's a totally new event in history to me. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of it.

I hope you have a peaceful weekend,

Melissa Hill
Book Blogger
www.onegoodbookblog.blogspot.com