Every year on Good Friday, my family cleans the graves of our family members and people who have no one to care for them. Cleaning the graves is our way of showing respect and appreciation to our family members who came before us. This tradition connects us to our family and its history, as well as the Moravian community. God’s Acre, the Moravian burial ground, is different from a normal cemetery; every gravestone is made the same size and shape. This comes from the Moravian belief that everyone is equal in God's eyes. People are also not buried next to their families, but buried in groups based on gender. This idea of being equal in God’s eyes is not just shown in burial grounds but throughout their culture. When Moravians came to America, they established planned settlements where they could live and freely practice their religion. They collected all their money and resources together to buy large settlements of land to build their communities on. Old Salem, which was founded in 1766, was one of the major Moravian settlements. Cleaning graves is my way of learning about my family's history by listening to stories from each person who has passed and how they impacted our family. It's also a way of taking care of people in my community who don’t have anyone to remember them, showing how the immigration of the Moravians years ago seeking religious freedom created a community that is still here today, not by leaving their traditions and beliefs behind but by bringing them along. 

– CC

Relationship:  Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more