Day 17 of Christmas Nightlight Readings: Silent Night

Silent Night tells the story of the Christmas Truce in 1914 during WWI. There is some variation on the story, but this book tells the true story behind the truce. The spontaneous truce which occurred in the trenches during Christmas, caused a moment of peace between the Germans, Scottish, and French soldiers. That very night they set aside their weapons and instead spent the evening exchanging goods, sharing food and drinks, and even sharing a song or two, one being "Silent Night" (which everyone knew in their own language).

Originally in German, an Austrian priest, wrote the Christmas hymn nearly a hundred years prior to the evening in the trenches. There are several myths surrounding the creation of the carol, but one seems pretty repetitive that Franz Gruber, the composer, wrote the song with a guitar melody because the church organ was broken. Whether this is accurate or not, is debatable.

As I was researching the Christmas Truce this evening I thought, wouldn't it have been cool to have an actual recording of the three opposing sides singing "Silent Night." Of course this is not possible, because (not to my knowledge) film was not being recorded on war front until WWII—and it was limited to even then. Now a-days, we would have seen the video go viral on YouTube and all the media sites. If only...the best I can do is show a clip from a French film (thanks to the suggestion of a teacher friend of mine) "Joyeux Noel."