Sunday, September 5, 2021

Silent Night


We just learned about the Lift High the Cross, by Joseph Mohr and Franz Xaver Gruber in 1818 in Austria.

One of the most famous Christmas songs is Silent Night.

The German name for this song is "Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht".
Mohr had written the song as a poem, and wanted Gruber to write the music to go with it for a Christmas church service.
A river had flooded the church and the organ didn't work anymore, so Gruber wrote music for the guitar.
It was later written in English in 1859 in New York City.

One time on a Christmas Eve in 1914 when British and German soldiers were at war, both sides stop fighting for one night and sang Silent Night in English or Stille Nacht in German, and went out to meet each other on the battlefield in peace.
It was called the Christmas Truce of 1914.


(from: wikipedia - silent night)


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