November 29, 2021
Amy asked me for a series of stories about the songs of Christmas, and so I will begin with the well-known story “Silent Night.” It is a story I know, because in June 1993, I was asked to write it for Reader’s Digest. I had sent a query letter to the publisher in February or March giving them a little teaser, and asking if they were interested in the story. The letter was an old-fashioned snail mail letter – handwritten, sealed in an envelope, addressed and posted with a stamp. Internet was modems and dial-ups; high speed was a long way off.
On May 24, 1993, I boarded a Delta airplane in Augusta with the terminating stop in Международный аэропорт Шереметьево (Sheremetyevo International Airport) Moscow, Russia. A reply from Reader’s Digest arrived at 4214 Cap Chat Street, our residence at the time, several weeks after I left for a 90 day life-changing mission trip to Samara, Russia. Bonnie called me, read the letter, and I asked her to call the magazine and ask them for a week to see what I could do. I was using AOL (America On Line) dial-up, and it was very slow and very unreliable because of the very old telephone system in my Russian apartment. Before the week was up, I knew I would not be able to complete my research and satisfy the upcoming holiday deadline, so I declined the invitation (the publisher did give me a $200 fee for suggesting the story – and the person who did the story for that December 1993 issue did a great job).
The basic story is very simple. Josef Mohr, an Austrian Roman Catholic priest and writer, on Christmas Eve in 1818, walked from his home in Salzburg to visit his friend Franz Gruber in the neighboring town of Arnsdorf. Mohr brought with him a poem he had written two years earlier. He needed a carol for the Christmas Eve midnight Mass that was only a few hours away, and hoped his friend, a school teacher who also served as the church’s choir master and organist, could set his poem to music. Gruber composed the melody for Mohr’s “Stille Nacht” in just a few hours. The song was sung at Midnight Mass in a simple arrangement for guitar and choir.
Some accounts, and one that I was trying to track down for that 1993 version, had Gruber writing the music for the guitar because the bellows on the church organ were old and cracked, and desperately needed repair to in order to make beautiful music (some stories said the organ wouldn’t even play). The truth seems more simple – Mohr’s favorite instrument was the guitar.
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| The only known handwritten copy by Mohr and Gruber |
Before we go on, and there is one more story – almost unbelievable – that goes with this beautiful song, listen to this incredible version of “Silent Night” as performed by the group, Celtic Woman.
Perhaps the most unusual singing of “Silent Night” took place on Christmas Eve, 1914. The War to End All Wars had started 5 months earlier, and the two sides, Allied and German, were firmly dug into trenches facing each other across the deadly territory called “No Man’s Land.” The guns became silent and there was an unofficial truce. Officially, both sides denied the event until The New York Times broke the story a week later. British papers quickly followed, printing numerous first-hand accounts from soldiers in the field, taken from letters home to their families. Coverage in Germany was more muted, with some newspapers strongly criticizing those who had taken part and no pictures were published. In France, press censorship ensured that the only word that spread of the truce came from soldiers at the front or first-hand accounts told by wounded men in hospitals.
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| A photograph of British and German soldiers in No Man’s Land during the 1914 Christmas Truce |
Here is the story as I tell it in a Christmas sermon entitled, “Christmas Is For Children.”
It was a cold night in 1914, and on the Western Front. Over in this elongated trench were the Germans, and here in this elongated trench were the British.
It was bitter cold and there was snow. In both trenches the men huddled together, trying to get warm. Overhead there was the burst of guns, the cannons. But as midnight – Christmas Eve – neared, strangely the guns stopped.
From the German trenches there was singing: “Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht! Aless schlaft, einsam wacht.”
Then from the British trenches, the response in English: “Silent night, holy night. All is calm, all is bright.”
Then again from the German trenches: “Oh, little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie.”
And the antiphonal singing continued, from one trench to another.
Suddenly out of the German trenches the soldiers poured out, and raced across “No Man’s Land.” The German officers, always seeking to maintain order, if nothing else, screamed at them to return to their posts, but they paid them no attention.
And where to run just a few moments ago would have meant certain death, no where was not a sound except joking, laughter, joy.
And the British troops poured out of their trenches. They met in No Man’s Land, and they embraced each other and they fraternized for two or three hours.
Repeatedly they made this statement: “Let the war stop. It’s Christmas Eve!”
Of all the incidents in World War I probably none was more unusual. You see, it’s at Christmas time that men do unusual things. It’s at Christmas that the best comes out in us and the worst is pushed aside. It’s at Christmas that we feel the kindest feelings, and toward those we don’t even like. It’s at Christmas time we think like children, and children are so naive.
Coming up are links to two videos, each showing an imaginative version of that Christmas Eve Truce. Take the time to watch them, they are well worth the time invested. The first piece is 3 minutes 15 seconds long. The second is 13:30.
Celtic Thunder is an Irish singing and stage show group. This clip features “Christmas 1915” (I don’t know why their video is entitled 1915 instead of 1914. There was another Christmas truce in 1915, but it was smaller in scope).
Next, this piece is from Joyeux Noel, a 2005 movie. This film dramatizes one section the Truce (the good feelings of Christmas Eve spread all along the Western Front) as the French, Scottish and German sides partake, even though they are aware that fraternization is cause for court martial. Strange note: when I wrote this blog last night, the link went to a clip that was in English. Now the English is in subtitles. The original clip is no longer available.
Silent night, holy night!
All is calm, all is bright.
Round yon Virgin, Mother and Child.
Holy infant so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace,
Sleep in heavenly peace
Silent night, holy night!
Shepherds quake at the sight.
Glories stream from heaven afar
Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia,
Christ the Savior is born!
Christ the Savior is born
Silent night, holy night!
Son of God love's pure light.
Radiant beams from Thy holy face
With dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus Lord, at Thy birth
Jesus Lord, at Thy birth
Finally, here is a simple rendition of this beautiful carol performed by 3 women with incredible blending harmony and accompanied, as it was originally written, by guitar. Enjoy.
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