Silent Night

Holy Night

DECEMBER 19, 2007 (WEDNESDAY) – I asked myself, “What is my favorite Christmas song?” Without hesitation, I first thought of “Silent Night.”
This hymn is very popular, and has been translated from the original German into more than 300 languages and dialects. There is a “Silent Night Society” and, in Orberndorf, Austria, a Silent Night Chapel and Museum.
A beautiful story from World War I tells of the night that German and American soldiers sang carols to each other and called a brief truce, mingling and sharing Christmas Eve. The spontaneous first carol that night was “Stille Nacht,” “Silent Night.” So many stories are connected to this song that it is difficult to sort out the legends from the facts.
The original lyrics of the song Stille Nacht were written in German by the priest Father Josef Mohr, in Mariapfarr, Austria, in 1816 and the melody was composed by the Austrian headmaster Franz X. Gruber. A manuscript discovered in 1995 is dated by researchers at 1820.