The Mid-Atlantic Germanic Society held its Fall Meeting in Bethlehem, PA on Saturday, October 14, 2006.On Friday, October 13, 2006, we had a Walking Tour of Historic Bethlehem.John Humphrey, our President, conducted the tour of 25 persons starting at 2 P.M.He has Moravian ancestors and has authored numerous books on the early Moravians. The Moravians were and are primarily evangelists.Near the end of the Eighteenth Century Moravian Administrator Bishop John Ettwein prepared a plan for Bethlehem.Count Nicalous Ludwig von Zinzendorf in 1722 provided shelter for Moravian refugees at Herrnhut.Ten years later, two men set out from Herrnhut.Leonard Dober settled St. Thomas in the Danish West Indies, and David Nitschman founded Bethlehem, PA. We started the tour at Historic Hotel Bethlehem, which is where the Moravians first settled in 1741.They built their first Log Cabin House where the Parking Lot is located now. We went down steps to where the Water Works are, along the Monocacy Creek, which empties into the Lehigh River. We then walked along the streets where the old houses were that housed the community.In the old days, the children were not raised by their parents.After they were weaned, the girls all lived in what they called Single Sister Houses.When they reached a certain age, they lived in the Girls Seminary House. The boys did the same; later had a Brethren House. They had a Children’s School. The groups were called choirs. The parents lived in Married Couple houses.They also did everything together. Example, they had a Tannery, Soapmaking House, Flax House, Dye House, Flour House, etc. When the young men and women were ready for marriage, they were married by lot.The young man would tell the leaders that he was interested in a certain young lady.The leaders would make papers.“Yes, no, nothing”.They would pray over them and then pick one.“Yes” meant they could get married; “no” meant they couldn’t get married ever and couldn’t apply again; “Nothing” meant indifferent, but they could apply again at a later date. The last area we toured was around the churches.We didn’t enter any of them. However, we toured the cemetery, which was different. In church the women sat on one side, and the men on the other side of the aisles. We did this in our church too, around 1900. In their cemetery, the women are all buried together in one section, and the men together in another section. They have no tombstones as we see in our cemeteries. They use flat stones, approximately 12”x18”x5”.They have name and date of birth and death.No reference to a husband or wife, or father or mother. The tour was interesting.Many of us knew nothing about the Moravian background.Of course, this was the olden days, and things have changed. Our customs have changed drastically from the old days.