Christmas in Fort Wayne

"On the eve of the three great holidays of the Christian year, Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, there was a beautiful custom at St. Paul's to "ring in" these festivals. St. Paul's had three noble bells cast for the congregation. All three bells were run together, three times; and all three bells once every Saturday evening, to ring in the Sunday. . .

"The most notable and most frequented service at St. Paul's during the entire church-year was, and still is, "die Christmette" (Christmas matins) at six o'clock in the morning of the birthday of the Christ-child, the singing largely done by  the children specially trained in classes; and at the end of that unique service the teachers were remembered with Christmas presents."[1]

Old St. Paul's German Evangelical Lutheran Church, Fort Wayne, IN
Image courtesy of the Allen County Public Library.

“In one particular matter there was at that time [1860s-1870s] a strong difference between Fort Wayne and St. Louis, I mean in the Christmette, held at 6 A. M. on Christmas morning. In Fort Wayne it was the most crowded service of the year, in which young and old most eagerly shared, in which “Vom Himmel hoch, da komm’ ich her,” “Lobt Gott, ihr Christen allzugleich,” and “Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ,” were sung with a rapture beyond words, in which the manger of Bethlehem was extolled especially by children’s concerted voices, in which the entire church was festooned with fragrant garlands of evergreen, and lighted up with every contrivance of festal illumination. In St. Louis, in those days, small and often shivering assemblies were generally content to listen to some one of us students.”[2]

N.b. The background image on this blog is a picture of Christmas at the present St. Paul's church, taken in 1907.

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[1] Ernest G. Sihler, From Maumee to Thames and Tiber (New York: New York University Press, 1930), 23f.

[2] E. G. Sihler, “College and Seminary Life in the Olden Days,” in Ebenezer: Reviews of the Work of the Missouri Synod during Three Quarters of a Century, ed. W. H. T. Dau (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1922), 260.