Silent Night

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 the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth,
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth.

About Silent Night
Words by Joseph Mohr, 1816; music by Franz Xaver Gruber, 1818; English translation by John Freeman Young, 1859

“Silent Night” began as a German poem, “Stille Nacht,” written in 1816 by Joseph Mohr, a young assistant priest in Austria. Two years later, serving at the little church of St. Nicholas in Oberndorf, near Salzburg, he asked his friend Franz Xaver Gruber, a schoolteacher and organist, to set it to music. On Christmas Eve, 1818, the two men sang it together for the first time, with Mohr accompanying on guitar.

A traveling organ repairman carried the song into the mountains of the Zillertal, where touring family singers picked it up and took it across Europe and eventually to America. Along the way the writers’ names were lost, and many people assumed a famous composer like Mozart or Haydn had written it. Gruber finally set the record straight in 1854. The English words most Americans sing come from John Freeman Young, an Episcopal priest in New York, whose translation was published in 1859.

The carol has since been translated into more than 300 languages. Soldiers on both sides sang it during the Christmas truce of 1914, and Bing Crosby’s 1935 recording became one of the best-selling singles of all time.

“Silent Night” is in the public domain, so the words, melody, and English translation are free for anyone to sing and share. Modern arrangements and recordings may still carry their own copyrights.