With Christmas just around the corner, I thought I'd share my favorite Christmas carol with you. This was really fun, as I did some research into the fascinating history "O Holy Night." But before that, here's one of my favorite versions of the song. It is from the Christmas at Downton Abbey cd, performed by Julian Ovenden. (You may remember him as Charles Blake, one of Lady Mary's suitors). Enjoy!
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| Photo Credit: Downton Abbey on Masterpiece |
The History
The beloved, traditional song "O Holy Night" was originally written in 1847 in France. A parish priest asked a man named Placide Cappeau de Roquemaure, known for his poetry, to write a Christmas poem for mass. A childhood accident had left Roquemaure an amputee, without his right hand. Roquemaure was also not a Christian (in fact, he left the church and eventually became a Socialist). But he was glad to share his talents and so, he wrote "Cantique de Noel" (O Holy Night) while on the road to Paris, imagining the road to Bethlehem. Roquemaure decided to turn the poem into a song, but he was not musically inclined and turned to his friend world-renowned friend Adolphe Charles Adams. As a Jewish man, "Cantique de Noel" represented a holiday Adams didn't celebrate and man he didn't believe was God's son or the Savior. But he used his talents and experience from conservatories and composing ballets to put the poem to music. It was performed at the Christmas mass a few weeks later.
The story doesn't end there, however.
Because of the backgrounds of the writer and composers, the Catholic church in France banned the song for decades. But the people of France loved the song and its popularity reached all the way across the world - into the midst of the Civil War in the USA. It was here that John Sullivan Dwight translated (and published) the song into the English version we know today. Dwight was an ardent abolitionist - so the line about the "chains He shall break, for the slave is our brother, and in His name all oppression shall cease" was especially meaningful to him. The song became especially popular in the Northern abolitionist movement.
Back in France, the story goes that in the middle of the Franco-Prussian war, on the Christmas Eve of 1871 as French and German soldiers were fighting one another, a French solider jumped out of the trench and began to sing "O Holy Night". In response, a German soldier came out and sang the first verse of Martin Luther's "From Heaven Above to Earth I Come," before a truce was declared.
There is one more special part to the story of "O Holy Night." On the USA, Christmas Eve 1906, Professor Reginald Fessenden (former chemist for Thomas Edison) shocks the world by making the first radio broadcast. Where previously only beeps could be used to communicate, Fessenden's voice broke over the airwaves to radio operators on ships and newspaper companies. How fitting, that a part of this first broadcast, is the announcement of a Savior for all peoples.
You can find the recording online! Listen as Fessenden begins playing "O Holy Night" and reading the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke at the 2:43 mark.
I hope you enjoyed learning about the history of O Holy Night as much as I did! Merry Christmas!
Sources:
Four Things You Didn't Know about O Holy Night
The Amazing Story of O Holy Night
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