Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother, and in His name, all oppression shall cease.
The Song – Oh Holy Night – Part 1
One of my favourite Christmas songs is “Oh Holy Night.” It has been recorded an incredible amount of times in an array of different styles. I just spent more than 30 minutes on Spotify exploring some of the wonderful (and interesting) ways people have arranged this beautiful song.
The point is, this song has touched hearts and lives for more than a century. It so wondrously expresses the miracle of Christ’s birth, the human manifestation of the divine, and humanities’ response to his physical entrance and presence in the earth.
The story behind the song is just as remarkable too.
In a small French town in 1847, Wine commissioner, Socialist, sometimes poet, and one-handed man Placide Chapeau, was asked by his local Priest to write a Christmas Poem. Placide accepted the challenge and on a stagecoach ride to another town, he began to write the now famous hymn. Not being a man of faith himself (some report that he was an atheist), Cappeau took to reading the Gospel of Luke for inspiration… and inspiration came. His imagination filled with the sights, sounds, and emotions of what it would have been like to witness this miraculous birth. Wondrous and humble, life changing yet simple. In awe of what was happening within himself while reading the story of Jesus birth, 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 and was sung for the first time at midnight mass on Christmas Eve 1847.
But in its infancy, the song faced some challenges. Word got around about its authors. Written by a drinking socialist, and a Jewish musical composer, Church leaders were unhappy with its origins and integrity. Thus, the song was banned throughout the church in France. One French bishop denounced it saying that it “lack[ed] musical taste and [was totally absent] of the spirit of religion.”
But the spirit of the song, even though it had been declared lacking, had sunk deep into the hearts of the people and “Oh Holy Night” lived on within them, being sung in houses and during local gatherings.
American Minister, Abolitionist and Journalist, John Sullivan Dwight, heard “Oh Holy Night”, loved it and translated it into English. He taught the song everywhere he went and it caught on quickly. It became anthem like during the American Civil War, carrying many hearts and hopes through dark nights.
“Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother, and in His name, all oppression shall cease.”
On Christmas Eve, around 1870, under a starry sky in the trenches of the Franco-Prussian war, a lone French soldier stood to his feet, looked out and over to his German enemies and lifted his voice in song:
“Oh Holy Night, the stars are brightly shining…”
So moved were the German troops that they sang a Hymn back, and for the next 24 hours, a “ceasefire” was observed 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 been impacting ever since the first time it was sung…
To be continued…
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