UNION TOWNSHIP, Ohio — Union Township will host its annual Mt. Moriah Lantern Lighting Ceremony on Saturday, Sept. 19, inviting families to Mt. Moriah Cemetery for an evening built around handmade lanterns, a complimentary dinner and a shoreline tribute to loved ones who have died.
The free event runs from 5 to 7:30 p.m. at the cemetery, 686 Mt. Moriah Drive, according to the Union Township Board of Trustees, which operates the cemetery.
Participants will be given a paper lantern and supplies to personalize it with written messages of love and remembrance, the township said. Attendees are encouraged to bring photographs of relatives or friends who have died to attach to their lanterns.
After the complimentary dinner, guests will gather at the cemetery’s pond as dusk falls for a brief ceremony in which candles are lit and the lanterns are set adrift on the water, carrying their messages across the surface, the township said.
Parking for the ceremony will be available across Mt. Moriah Drive at Mt. Moriah United Methodist Church, with a shuttle running guests to the ceremony site near the pond and gazebo on the cemetery’s east side, according to the township. Questions can be directed to the cemetery office at 513-752-1773.
Mt. Moriah Cemetery traces its origins to 1800, when the land was purchased by Maurice P. Witham, the founder of nearby Withamsville, according to the township. What began as a family burial ground on Witham’s farm grew alongside a Methodist Protestant church that once stood on the property. The cemetery’s oldest section still sits behind a white chapel built in 1842, and an ornamental iron fence installed in 1880 remains part of the grounds today.
The cemetery now spans more than 50 acres and includes three gazebos, a cremation scattering garden, a columbarium and the Heritage Memorial Grove, the township said. It has held accreditation from the American Public Works Association since 2011, with re-accreditations in 2015, 2019 and 2023.
Among those buried at Mt. Moriah are two former U.S. representatives, Dr. William Doan and Charles Cyrus Kearns, along with Dr. Elisha Bennett, an early Clermont County physician, according to the township. The oldest marked grave belongs to Sarah Stockton, who died in 1813.
The information contained in this story was obtained from Union Township, Clermont County.