I spent my undergraduate years at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. There is a Moravian settlement not far from the campus and 48 years ago a Moravian student suggested that the university hold a traditional Moravian love feast near Christmas. The tradition has continued since that time, and was one of the things I loved attending every year during my time on campus. It’s a lovely way to be brought into the Christmas spirit especially during the stressful time of finals.

There are many things I love about the love feast. There is a lot of chorale singing of Christmas hymns. Each person in attendance is also given a yeast bun, a cup of Moravian coffee, and a bees wax candle to use during the feast. The buns are super tasty and watching Wait Chapel  slowly transform from complete darkness into a room lit by thousands of candles is a wondrous sight. I always made sure to sit in the balcony because it gave the best view of the candles being lit as people passed their flames on to the person sitting next to them.

I obviously couldn’t attend the love feast in person this year, but thanks to the wonders of technology in our modern age I was able to watch it on YouTube. Sadly no one popped out of the screen and gave me a bun and some coffee to enjoy while I watched. I am sure the only people who would actually care to sit down and watch the hour and half service are fellow Wake alums, so I’m embedding another video Wake posted that is a slideshow of pictures from the love feast with excerpts of audio from the service that is only a few minutes long if you care to get a sense of what it’s all about.

And just in case there is anyone out there who wants to watch the whole thing.