by Dale Reeves
Story Pastor
The most recorded Christmas carol of all time had humble origins, written in the tiny village of Oberndorf, Austria, by Franz Xavier Gruber and Joseph Mohr, churchmen who wanted a simple song to perform for Christmas, since the church organ had been damaged by flooding. It was first performed with accompaniment by the acoustic guitar on Christmas Eve, 1818, and was later performed by groups with traveling folk singers, spreading it around the world.
But perhaps the most famous place the carol has been sung was also the most unusual: the trenches of WWI. In December 1914, hostilities had died down between battles, as tense English, French, and German soldiers waited for the next bout of gunfire. But on Christmas Eve, what they got instead was an unexpected ceasefire.
The power of the carol was never so clear as on Christmas Eve 1914, when a lone soldier’s exquisite voice made history. “It was impromptu, no one planned it,” commented historian Stanley Weintraub, author of Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce. Weintraub documents that it began with German officer, Walter Kirchhoff, a tenor with the Berlin Opera. He came forward and sang Silent Night in its original German language, and then in English. In the clear, cold night of Christmas Eve, his voice carried very far.
All Is Calm
The shooting had stopped, and in that silence, he sang and the British knew the song and sang back. Gradually, in certain places along the line, enemy soldiers ventured into No-Man’s Land to play games, exchange gifts, and celebrate together, as best they could, knowing that in a few days they would resume fighting against each other again.
The song had a deep impact on many of the soldiers. Soldiers wrote home the day after to their families, to their wives, and to their parents, saying, “You won’t believe this. It was like a waking dream.” Some of the soldiers also mentioned “O Come All Ye Faithful” in their letters, in addition to the German tenor who sang “Silent Night.”
“They recognized that on both ends of the conflict, they were the same.” A carol from a simpler time, first performed at a midnight mass on Christmas Eve in a small village church, sung a century later over bloodied, disease-ridden trenches, in hopes that there would be another silent night again soon!
This Christmas season, we see a world often in turmoil: wars, political uncertainties, poverty, disease, famines, military coups, killing of innocent lives, natural disasters. In the midst of the chaos, we who personally know the Messiah who came to rescue us from our plight, must be peace-bringers, light-bearers, and hope-sharers to friends and neighbors who need to know of his grace, and the hope and peace that he offers!
May you truly experience his hope, his peace, and his light this night, on Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas!
“For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light!” (Ephesians 5:9, NLT).