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A Patriotic Glow: A Moravian Community Celebrates Independence Day
| Article
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10643 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
7 / 1993 |
2,912 Words |
| Author
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Holly Fletcher
Holly Fletcher is a free-lance writer residing in the
Washington, D.C., area. She writes often for THE WORLD & I. |
In a perfect metaphor for the spread of freedom across America, a single candle is lighted in the darkness of a midsummer evening, and its flame in turn is used to ignite thousands of other tapers. Together they spread a golden glow, pushing back the dusk and seeming to offer the promise of a hopeful future to the crowd of thousands. Welcome to the Lititz, Pennsylvania, candle illumination, a traditional part of an Independence Day celebration that has continued every year, without break, for 175 years.
On first glance, Lititz doesn't look like an unusual town. It is a clean, well-kept community of 8,500, tucked among the bountiful farms of Lancaster County in the heart of the Pennsylvania Dutch country. But it is unusual, both for its strong Moravian influence and its ability to sustain community spirit over seventeen decades. Lititz is the kind of town where all year residents hold in their hearts a kind of quiet flame for such values as family and church and tradition; Independence Day is just a more overt expression of how they feel every day. Each year, the July 4 festivities unite the residents in a showy display of their appreciation of the past and the sacrifices of their ancestors, of their joy in the freedom they cherish for themselves and their children. With quiet but unmistakable pride, the citizens of Lititz take strength from their town's long history: their Moravian forefathers, the July 4 festivities, and their designation as the community holding the longest continuously celebrated Independence Day in the country.
First patriotic high jinks
The first recorded July 4 celebration in Lititz, held in 1811, was quickly quashed. According to town historian R. Ronald Reedy, the straitlaced founding fathers of this Moravian town considered the patriotic high jinks to be "offensive conduct . . . [that] greatly disturbed the village late into the night." The reproving air--a far cry from the zeal with which the festivities are greeted today--lingered until 1818. By then, the disapproving Lititz Moravians had been soothed by the celebration's growing sheen of tradition and spurred into support by a fear of appearing unpatriotic in their adopted country. Once the matter was settled, Lititz never looked back.
This year about 12,000 people are expected to attend the July 4 event, held, as always, in Lititz Springs Park. More than half of the town turns out, as do residents from the surrounding towns and former residents who come great distances to return to the fold. By the end of June, quilt and antique shops along Main
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