Silent Night:

“Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright”

Written by Val Huxley

The words of silent night speak of calm and tranquillity. They are gentle and peaceful, describing a wonderful time, the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ, into what must have been a chaotic time in Bethlehem.

The words just draw me into the spirituality of what was to come, a wonderful message of peace for all people.

The background of the Carol starts in 1818, at the Church of Saint Nicholas in Oberndorf in Austria. The young Catholic priest was in despair when he discovered that the organ can be played for the service on Christmas Eve because it had been damaged by mice. His name was Joseph Mohr, so he decided to contact Franz Gruber a schoolmaster and organist nearby, to see if it would be possible to compose music for a poem he had written some time ago. Franz agreed to compose the music for the poem and together they sang Silent Night for the first time at the Christmas Eve service with Franz Gruber playing his guitar and the church choir joining in on the last two lines of each verse. The music is gentle and inclusive welcoming everyone to celebrate the birth of Jesus in their own way.

During a break on Christmas Eve in World War One, hostilities were suspended and men from both sides sang silent night, it must have been a wonderfully moving experience of calm and tranquilly in what was, I imagine the hell of war

Some years ago with my husband and two friends, I was able to visit the Church of Saint Nicholas on a cold and snowy day a few days after Christmas.