Holy Night Part 1
“Oh Holy Night” is an amazing song that so wondrously expresses the miracle of Christ’s birth and humanities' response… And its story is remarkable:
In 1847, in a small French town, Wine commissioner, Socialist, sometimes poet, and one-handed, Placide Cappeau was asked to write a Christmas Poem by his Parish Priest. He accepted the challenge and on a stagecoach ride to another town, he began to write the now famous hymn. Not being of faith himself (some report that he was an atheist), Cappeau read from the Gospel of Luke for inspiration… and inspiration came. He imagined what it would have been like to witness this miraculous birth, wondrous and humble, life changing and simple… and the song flowed out of him. By the time he reached his destination, Cappeau was so moved that he asked his friend Adolphe Charles Adams to put the poem to music. Thus, the Carol was born. It was first sung at midnight mass on Christmas Eve 1847.
But word got around about the songs authors. And Church leaders weren’t happy. One French bishop denounced the song for its “lack of musical taste and total absence of the spirit of religion.” Written by a drinking socialist, and a musical composing Jew, the song was banned in the church in France.
But the spirit of the song had sunk deep into the hearts of the people and “Oh Holy Night” lived on…
American Minister, Abolitionist and Journalist, John Sullivan Dwight, heard the song, loved it and translated it into English. He taught the song widely and it became extremely popular and carried many hearts and hopes during the American Civil War.
“Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother, and in His name, all oppression shall cease.”
Christmas Eve, around 1870, under a star filled sky in the trenches of the Franco-Prussian war, a lone french soldier stood to his foot, looked over at his German enemy and sung with all his heart, “Oh Holy Night, the stars are brightly shining…” So moved were the German troops that they sung a Hymn back, and for 24 hrs called a “ceasefire” to honour Christ and his birth.
This story travelled all the way home to France, and the country that had initially rejected this song, began to sing it once again. Echoing the hearts, stories and lives it had already impacted since its conception…
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