Christmas and "Silent Night"

In a couple of days, we will be celebrating Christmas, one of the most popular holidays in our countries. Different traditions are kept for this season, traditions that include special foods and listen to Christmas carols. But not many people know that this December 24^th, we will be celebrating the 200 anniversary of the most popular Christmas Carol of all times: We are talking about “Silent Night”

“Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht”, is the first verse of this song that is translated from its original German into English as “Silent night, holy night”.  In the website Silent Night, we can read that the lyric of this song was written in 1816 by Joseph Mohr, a Catholic priest from Salzburg in Austria. Franz Xaver Gruber, a teacher from Upper Austria composed the music. The song was first performed after the Christmas Mass on December 24^th, 1818 in the chapel of in the little town of Oberndorf in today’s Austria.

Because the original composition was arranged for 2 voices and a guitar, for years, the most famous myth surrounding this song was that the organ was defective because of a mouse that ate a part of its mechanism. The true story is quite different. But I will let you read the story in Silent Night website to find out what happened.

According to many sources, Silent Night is the most translated Christmas carol.  This song has been translated to more than 140 languages, and is in the list of the most translated songs of all time, sharing a place of distinction with other songs like “Happy Birthday to you”, “It’s a small world” and “Amazing Grace”. In the site I link here, we can read the existent versions in 140 languages. From this list, 19 of those languages are constructed languages. But to complete this story, we must say that if we count dialects and different published translations, there are more than 300 different forms to sing this carol. Only in English, there are more than 20 translations.

Here some curious translations (Just the first line):

-Ladin: Quieta Nott, Soncha nott              

-Esperanto: Paca nokt’, sankt-vesper’

-Persian: Shab Ārām, shab moqhadas (شب آرام  شب مقدس )

-Uzbek: Oydin tun, Tinch kecha  (Ойдин тун, тинч кеча)

-Maltese: O lejl ta’ skiet, lejl ta-Milied      

-Tok Pisin: Gutpela nait, ho-oli nait.

-Scottish Gaelic: Oidhche shàmhach, oidhche naomh

-Faroese: Gleðilig jól!                                 

-Inuit: Jûtdlime kȋmasugtut

-Chinese (Mandarin): Píng’ān yè,  shèng shàn yè  (平安夜，圣善夜)

You can read the original composition of 6 verses in this link, as they were written by Joseph Mohr. Verses 1, 2 and 6 are the most popular, and the most translated as well. I finish with the first 2 original verses of this song, as they were written by Joseph Mohr in 1816. Enjoy it and Merry Christmas to all my readers!

Stille Nacht! Heil’ge Nacht!

Alles Schläft, einsam wacht

Nur das traute heilige Paar

Holder Knab’im lockingten Haar,

Schlafe in Himmlischer Ruh!

Stille Nacht! Heil’ge Nacht!

Gottes Sohn, o wie lacht

Lieb’aus deinem göttlichen Mund,

Da uns schlägt die rettende Stund’

Jesus in deiner Geburt !