There are a countless number of fascinating stories about of our best-known and loved songs. This is the one we selected, which is appropriate during these turbulent times and for the holy season, which is now upon us.
And suddenly there appeared with the angel a great multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests!” When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.”
Once upon a time, begins an ancient story of the real silent night. This historical gem is said to have begun in Oberndorf, a village near Salzburg, back in the year 1818 on Christmas Eve. Joseph Mohr, a Catholic curate was preparing Christmas services, so he tried to play the church organ, but it wasn’t working because mice chewed through the bellows.
Mohr then went out to visit members of the community, including one family with a sick baby. Mohr was apparently awed by the peace that lay over the scene. It reminded him of the need for music for the service, so he recalled a poem he previously wrote, which he then took to a schoolteacher and organist from a neighboring village named Franz Gruber, who composed “Silent Night” and performed it for the first time that night in Oberndorf, but playing guitar instead of the organ.
