Silent Night: A Christmas Carol for Today, A Bright Hope for Tomorrow
The gentle strains of “Silent Night” have graced the Christmas season for over 200 years.
From the hallowed halls of towering cathedrals to the speakers of a well-used smartphone, this song of peace and comfort has been played and sung so much that it reigns supreme as the world’s most popular Christmas carol.1
Although “Silent Night” has a humble origin story, its message is profound and universal. Its themes have remained applicable to all people of all ages. The timelessness of the carol is the secret to its longevity, and its material effect on the world – as seen during the devastation of World War One – is proof of its power.
It’s no wonder people want to make “Silent Night” a part of their own life’s song or that the world wishes to tout the carol as its anthem. For what better encapsulates the meaning of Christmas than hope?
Silent Night, Stille Nacht
“Silent Night” – or rather, “Stille Nacht” – was the result of a collaboration between two friends. Thus, even in the act of composition, this song brought people together!
The original six poetic verses were written by an Austrian priest named Joseph Mohr.2 This was in 1816 – that is, in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars. Mohr’s congregation, and no doubt Mohr himself, felt traumatized and disheartened by their experiences. In addition to the loss brought on by war, they were also suffering through a famine brought on by a volcanic eruption in Indonesia. Things became so desolate that 1815 was dubbed “The Year Without A Summer.”
It was a time of hunger, darkness, and hopelessness.
And yet, in the midst of this cacophony, Mohr penned these words:
Silent Night! Holy Night
joseph mohr, “silent night,” verse 5 (English translation by William C. Egan3)
Sleeps the world in peace tonight.
God sends his Son to earth below
A Child from whom all blessings flow
Jesus, embraces mankind.
Jesus, embraces mankind.
Mohr wanted, above all, to convey that there was a God who still cared. It was in the dark of night 2,000 years ago that God showed His love by sending the world a Savior; there could be no doubt this same God would see them through their own dark night in 1816.
In 1817, Mohr transferred to a different parish but took the Christmas poem with him. It was here in Obendorf he asked his friend, Franz Xaver Gruber, to compose a melody to go with it.
Mohr was actually a skilled violinist and guitarist, so why he didn’t compose the music himself is a mystery to historians.4 Nevertheless, the collaboration paints a beautiful picture of the comradery the song would later engender across the world.
“On Christmas Eve, 1818, the two friends sang ‘Silent Night’ together for the first time in front of Mohr’s congregation, with Mohr playing his guitar.”5
The Song Heard ‘Round the World
“Stille Nacht” was taken from Mohr’s church and into the surrounding villages, eventually spreading through Europe and even across the sea to North America. It was translated from German into over 300 different languages, and endless arrangements and ensembles have been created around the hymn in the centuries since.6
For a time, the original manuscript was lost, and legends swirled around “Silent Night.” Some said it was composed by Haydn, Mozart, or Beethoven.
While the carol’s beauty does befit such esteemed composers, something wonderful separates it from the Christmas music created by the likes of Handel or Bach; “Stille Nacht” was written for the everyday person.
“In 1818, when the carol was created, most Christmas music was written with one single purpose in mind: reinforce existing class distinctions. [However], ‘Silent Night’ conveyed the opposite message: hope for ordinary people.”7
Just as the lyrics proclaim God’s love and care for all people, the original musical styling further enforces that message.
Gruber composed the melody using Siciliana, an Italian song form meant to mimic the sound of water. Sarah Eyerly, assistant professor of musicology and director of the early music program at Florida State University’s College of Music, hypothesized Gruber’s intention behind the unique styling in a 2018 interview:
“I really think that it’s because most of the congregation that were listening to that evening were workers on the river…it mirrored the soundscape of water, and it links to people’s daily lives.”8
“Silent Night” was accessible to people, just as Jesus in the form of a baby, “tender and mild,” was God’s way of making Himself accessible to mankind, too.
It is this accessibility, this universal message of you are loved, that carried “Silent Night” around the globe.
The Christmas Truce
Perhaps it should come as no surprise, then, that “Silent Night” features in one of the most legendary Christmastime stories of the modern day – the Christmas Truce of 1914.
World War One’s trench warfare had already proved to be bloody and dismal. Soldiers on either side shivered in the cold and wet and under threat of constant fire.
It is in such fraught and demoralizing conditions as these that people often display the very best or very worst of themselves; hardship and conflict are breaking points for the human spirit. Perhaps with that in mind, Pope Benedict XV called for a Christmas truce during the first year of the war.
His request was officially rejected.9
However, “the humanizing power of ‘Silent Night'” would prevail that Christmas Eve.10 The Germans began to sing “Stille Nacht.”
Rifleman Graham Williams remembered the Christmas Truce being the first time he had ever heard the song.11 Indeed, the carol had yet to reach the heights of its international popularity, and yet “Stille Nacht” did not require familiarity to be translated as a gesture of goodwill. The gentle melody composed by Gruber seemed inherently imbued with a call for peace.
The English responded with their own caroling, singing out, “O Come, All Ye Faithful.” The Germans across the way joined in, singling along in Latin, Adeste Fideles.12
[T]his is really a most extraordinary thing – two nations both singing the same carol in the middle of a war.”
graham williams, fifth london rifle brigade
When Christmas morning dawned, the British noticed small Christmas trees perched on the German parapets. A sudden, hard frost had created a sparkling layer of snow and ice on the front. Some accounts mention German shouts of “You no shoot, we no shoot” or loud calls of “Merry Christmas!” being belted across the way.13
Eventually, men from both sides slowly inched their way past barbed wire until, as Rifleman Oswald Tilley told his parents in a letter home, “literally hundreds of each side were out in no man’s land shaking hands.”14
The men began exchanging gifts like cigarettes and hats. They gave each other haircuts. They shared food, swapped stories of home, and played soccer. They buried their dead without fear of being shot.
I remember the silence, the eerie sound of silence…It was a short peace in a terrible war.”
alfred anderson, fifth batallion the black watch
Just as the carol had been born from war to console the hearts of the hopeless, it returned again to soothe the hearts of soldiers embroiled in conflict one hundred years later.
Today and Tomorrow
Today, the power of “Silent Night” has not diminished.
For all the darkness we may face, be it in our personal lives or on a global scale, the truth of this song shines out all the brighter.
Ever since the rise of Christmas music in the 1920s, nary an album has been recorded without an artist’s rendition of “Silent Night,” from Bing Crosby in 1928 to Lindsey Stirling in 2017. That’s because the message of the song is just as relevant today as it was yesterday and as it will be tomorrow.
And what is the message?
You are loved. There is hope.
Silent Night, Holy Night
Joseph Mohr, “Silent night,” verse 6 (English Translation by William c. egan15)
Mindful of mankind’s plight
The Lord in Heav’n on high decreed
From earthly woes we would be freed
Jesus, God’s promise for peace.
Jesus, God’s promise for peace.
From our MouseEars TV family to yours, we wish you the merriest of Christmases. May the peace of “Silent Night” ring true in your heart this day.
With Love,
Your Creative Editor
Cover Image
Photo: Unsplash
