- How a Christmas song became famous everywhere
I was on vacation in Southeast Asia. There, at the beginning of December, I already heard Christmas songs all the time in pizzerias, restaurants, and hotels.
The most famous one was “Silent Night, Holy Night.”
Here is the background story of the song that went around the world.
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Long ago, in 1818, there was a small village in the countryside of Austria. The village was quiet and poor. People lived simple lives and worked hard.
In this village lived a young priest named Joseph Mohr. He liked writing poems. One cold winter, he wrote a poem about peace, night, and the birth of Jesus. The poem was called “Silent Night.”
Joseph Mohr had a friend, Franz Xaver Gruber. Franz was a teacher and a music maker. He played the organ and loved music.
On Christmas Eve, there was a problem. The organ in the church was broken. The people were sad because there would be no music for the Christmas service.
Joseph Mohr went to Franz Gruber and asked for help. He showed him the poem and said, “Can you write music for this? We need a song for tonight.”
Franz Gruber wrote a simple melody. They played the song with a guitar, not an organ. That night, the song was sung for the first time in the small church.
The song was calm and beautiful. People loved it. Later, travelers and singers took the song to other countries. Step by step, “Silent Night” went around the world.
Today, people sing this song in many languages, even far away from its quiet countryside home.
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Vocabulary:
vacation – time when you do not work or go to school
background story – a story about how something begins
countryside – land outside the city, with farms and villages
a poem – short text with feelings and rhythm
peace – no war, feeling calm and safe
a music maker – a person who makes music
to play an organ – to make music with a big church instrument
to be broken – not working
to be sad – not happy
a Christmas service – a church meeting at Christmas
a guitar – a music instrument with strings
to be sung – people sing it
to be calm – quiet and peaceful
a traveler – a person who goes to other places
step by step – little by little
a language – words people use to speak
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