How flooding waters, damaging the church organ, gave birth to one of the most famous Christmas Carols.

 How flooding waters, damaging the church organ, gave birth to one of the most famous Christmas Carols.

Psalm 96:1  Oh sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth! 

One of today's famous Christmas Carols, Silent Night, was one day some 203 years ago also a new song, and is now sung all over the earth.  

It is the year 1818, in Obendorff, Austria. An itinerant group of actors was performing in towns throughout the Austrian Alps. On December 23 they arrived at Obendorff, a village near Salzburg, where they were to act out the story of Christ's birth in the small Church of St. Nicholas. Unfortunately the church organ was damaged by flood waters.  (In the 1890's the whole church was destroyed by a flood as well, and rebuilt some distance away.) After watching this play, the pastor, Josef Mohr, walked to a hilltop overlooking the small town, and pondered on the Christmas play. This made him remember a poem he wrote some years before that. He thought it can be used as a song. However, the church organ is not working and will not be repaired anytime soon, so they need to find some other instrument that they can use, despite the strong tradition that only the organ should be used. And he needed to find someone that can compose the melody to the words of his poem. So he quickly found the paper where he wrote this poem, and visited Franz Xaver Gruber, who was the schoolmaster and the church's organist, who lived in the nearby village of Arnsdorf.  Gruber then composed a guitar melody that same day, and the song was first sung in this little church in Obendorff on Christmas Eve of 1818. 

Some weeks later the organ builder, Karl Mauracher, arrived to repair the organ. When he was finished, he let Gruber test the organ. Gruber then played the Silent Night melody he composed. 

Mauracher was deeply touched by this, took the music to his own hometown and shared it there. From here it spread throughout Europe like a fire. Twenty years later this fire jumped the Atlantic Ocean and was sung (in German) in a church in New York City. In 1863 it was translated from German to English. Since then it was translated to more than 300 languages and is sung around the world every Christmas.

Psalm 149:1  Praise the LORD! Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise in the assembly of the godly! 

Riana Odendaal

Silent night, holy night!

All is calm, all is bright.
Round yon Virgin, Mother and Child.
Holy infant so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace,
Sleep in heavenly peace

Silent night, holy night!
Shepherds quake at the sight.
Glories stream from heaven afar
Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia,
Christ the Savior is born!
Christ the Savior is born  

Silent night, holy night!
Son of God love's pure light.
Radiant beams from Thy holy face
With dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus Lord, at Thy birth
Jesus Lord, at Thy birth