Singing trumps fighting

The carol "O Holy Night" is a favorite at Christmas time, especially when sung by someone who can, as Huffington Post puts it, "raise the rafters on the '-vine' of 'Oh night di-.'" The song itself has a controversial history of highs and lows, ecclesiastical machinations, popular support and even, as the story goes, the ability to stop a war.

The song originated in 1847 in the small French town of Roquemaure when a priest asked town poet Placide Cappeau to create a poem for Christmas. Cappeau agreed to do so and subsequently composed all six stanzas of "Minuit, Chretiens" during a long coach ride to Paris. He was so impressed with his poem that he decided the work should be transformed into a song. He approached his friend Adolphe Adams, a famous, classically trained composer, who turned the poem into the carol still sung today.

The carol met with immediate popular success as well as ecclesiastical approbation. However, when Cappeau later separated himself from the church and became a member of the socialist movement, and when it was decided Adolphe Adam was a Jew (though that is now in dispute), the French Catholic Church suddenly declared the song unfit for church services. The reasons given: lack of musical taste and "total absence of the spirit of religion." Nonetheless, the song continued to be loved and sung by the French people and even made its way to Canada as part of Quebec's Christmas service.

The song traveled to America also, but by a different route. American musical journalist, Unitarian minister and ardent abolitionist John Sullivan Dwight resonated with the fifth stanza of the French carol: "He sees a brother where there was only a slave, / Love unites those that iron had chained."

In 1855, Dwight created an English translation of the song and published it in his own journal "Dwight's Journal of Music" considered one of the most respected and influential musical periodicals of the mid-nineteenth century.

How far Dwight strayed from a strict translation is particularly noticeable in the title and first and second stanzas.

Midnight Christians

Midnight, Christians, is the solemn hour,

When God as man descended unto us

To erase the stain of original sin

And to end the wrath of His Father.

The entire world thrills with hope

On this night that gives it a Saviour.

People, kneel down, await your deliverance.

Christmas, Christmas, here is the Redeemer,

Christmas, Christmas, here is the Redeemer!

O Holy Night

O holy night! The stars are brightly shining,

It is the night of our dear Saviour's birth.

Long lay the world in sin and error pining,

Till He appear'd and the soul felt its worth.

A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices,

For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.

Fall on your knees! O hear the angel voices!

O night divine, O night when Christ was born;

O night divine, O night, O night Divine.

One story, persistent if not conclusively proven, credits "Minuit, Chretiens" as responsible for a cease fire on Christmas Eve 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War. According to the story, a French soldier jumped from his trench and began singing the carol. Both French and German troops remained frozen until the singing ended. Then a German soldier stood on the battlefield and sang a German carol, "From Heaven Above to Earth I Come." After that, both sides broke out in a familiar Austrian carol and by mutual consent the fighting ceased for 24 hours.

If that account sounds more wishful than realistic, a similar but better documented story tells of a parallel event during World War I. Stanley Weintraub, author of "Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce," wrote that Walter Kirchoff, a tenor with the Berlin Opera, "...came forward and sang "Silent Night" in German, and then in English. In the clear, cold night of Christmas Eve, his voice carried very far. The shooting had stopped and in that silence he sang and the British knew the song and sang back."

The truce did not apply to the whole war; fighting continued in some sectors. But the remarkable thing is, though the details varied, a truce and even friendly interchanges with the enemy did occur in numerous areas of the battlefield. Both the National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, Mo. and the British Imperial War Museum contain letters from soldiers writing home about that Christmas truce.

Captain Josef Sewald of Germany's 17th Bavarian Regiment wrote: "I shouted to our enemies that we didn't wish to shoot and that we make a Christmas truce. I said I would come from my side and we could speak with each other. First there was silence, then I shouted once more, invited them, and the British shouted: "No shooting!" Then a man came out of the trenches and I on my side did the same and so we came together and we shook hands - a bit cautiously!"

Sergeant A. Lovell, A Company, 3rd Rifle Brigade wrote: "Christmas Day! ...Last night as I sat in my little dug-out, writing, my chum came bursting in upon me with: "Bob! Hark at 'em!" And I listened. From the German trenches came the sound of music and singing. My chum continued. "They've got Christmas trees all along the top of their trenches. I never saw such a sight!" Climbing the parapet, I saw a sight which I shall remember to my dying day. Right along the whole of their line were hung paper lanterns and illuminations of every description, many of them in such positions as to suggest that they were hung upon Christmas trees....Some were for shooting the lights away, but almost at the first shot there came a shout in really good English: "Stop shooting!". Then began a series of answering shouts from trench to trench. It was incredible. "Halloo! Halloo! you English; we wish to speak." And everyone began to speak at once... A party of our men got out from the trenches and invited the Germans to meet them half-way and talk. And there in the searchlight they stood, Englishman and German, chatting and smoking cigarettes together midway between the lines. A rousing cheer went up from friend and foe alike. The group was too far away for me to hear what was said, but presently we heard a cheery "Good-night. A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all," with which the parties returned to their respective trenches. After this we remained the whole night through singing with the enemy song for song."

Of course, not everyone approved of the truce. Corporal Adolf Hitler of the 16th Bavarians wrote: "Such things should not happen in wartime. Have you Germans no sense of honour left at all?"

And of course, the impromptu truce could not last. Private M. Rivett – C Company, Lincolnshire Regiment wrote of meeting the Germans in the area between the two trenches and of singing with them and football skirmishes and of a planned evening "concert round the campfire." But he ends his letter: "But what a change tomorrow! Our battalion will be in the trenches. Peace and goodwill forgotten. Each man will be trying his best to pick off one or more of the enemy."