Silent Night

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“The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David.”
                                                                                              ~ Luke 2:11

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In December, there was always Christmas music playing in our home. My Mom loved listening to her Perry Como, Andy Williams, and Burl Ives Christmas albums on the family stereo. When music wasn’t playing on the turntable, Mom would be singing “Up on the Rooftop,” or “Here Comes Santa Clause.” Remembering her singing is one of my favorite Christmas memories.
At church we sang Christmas carols, but my favorite time would be the Christmas Eve service and singing Silent Night.

My grandparents and Aunt always visited for Christmas and we attended the service together. It would end with the lighting of small white candles held in the hands of attendees as we all sang Silent Night.

I would stand beside my aunt as the familiar carol began and I would hear her sweet singing voice. As the song progressed my aunt would harmonize with the melody and my heart would swell with joy because it was my favorite holiday, spent with those I loved. As the song came to a close, we would blow out our candles and exit the church in silence, walking down the sidewalk lit by luminaries. It was a special time.

In 1816, the words to the carol we now know as Silent Night were written by an Austrian priest by the name of Joseph Mohr. Two years later, Franz Gruber, the church’s organist, put music to Mohr’s poem and the song, “Stille Nacht” was born. The two men performed the song, accompanied by guitar, for the first time during a Christmas midnight mass at St. Nicholas Church in Oberndorf, Austria.

As the story goes, an organ repairman, Karl Mauracher, was called to repair the organ at St. Nicholas. (The organ being in disrepair was perhaps the reason the song was first sung with guitar accompaniment.) The repairman heard the song and took it back to his hometown of Tyrol, where he shared it with a group of singing sisters, known as the Strassers. The Strasser sisters began singing the song in their performances as they traveled. The carol soon became popular in German-speaking countries. As Germans immigrated to the United States, they brought the song with them. The song was first performed in the U.S. in New York’s Central Park by another singing group of sisters, the Rainer family, in 1839.
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 It would be hard for me to imagine Christmas without this familiar carol. Growing up in my family’s home, I would always sneak away from the rest of the family at some point on Christmas Eve before it was time for bed. I would go and sit in silence and look at our pretty Christmas tree, all lit up, the only lights in the room. When I married and had a family of my own, I continued this little tradition. Just a few quiet moments, silently looking at the Christmas tree lights, thinking about God’s goodness and Him sending His son, Jesus, all those years ago. He rent the heavens and love’s pure light came down on a silent or maybe even a not-so-silent night, just for you and me. Christ the Savior is born, Christ the Savior is born!

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