Moravian Star - Types of Stars

Types of Stars

There are many forms of Moravian stars, but the most commonly seen and most widely available is the 26-point form, composed of eighteen square and eight triangular cone-shaped points. This shape is technically known as a Great Stellated Rhombicuboctahedron. Each face of the geometric solid in the middle, the Rhombicuboctahedron, serves as the base for the "stellations" or starburst points. No matter how many points a star has, a Moravian star has a regular shape, based on polyhedrons. There are Moravian stars with 20, 26, 32, 50, 64 and 110 points that are commonly hand-made in the Moravian schools. The variety comes from the division of the bases of the points---using an octagonal face instead of a square face, etc. For example, the common 26-point Moravian Star becomes a 50-point Star when the squares and triangles that normally make up the faces of the polyhedron become octagons and hexagons. This leaves a 4-sided trapezoidal-shaped hole in the corners of the faces. This is filled with an irregular four sided point. These 4-sided points form a "starburst" in the middle of what looks like a regular 26-point star.

Simple paper decorations made from four folded strips of paper are sometimes incorrectly called "Moravian" stars, but are known as German stars, Swedish stars, Bethlehem stars, or more correctly as Froebel stars, named after Friedrich Fröbel, the German educator who invented them.