Oh Holy Night
/I played “Oh Holy Night” as a piano duet with my teacher in my Senior year recital. Karen Jones was my piano teacher for over ten years and she selected this duet as my last performance before I wrapped up piano lessons and headed to college. I didn’t pay much attention to the lyrics as a teenager, I was more focused on hitting the right notes and keeping up with the pace of my gifted teacher. But, this song quickly became my holiday favorite.
Yesterday, I pulled out that same sheet music from over 30 years ago and played it. Two hands can’t weave the same magic that our four did in that recital, but it is still a spiritual experience each time I sit down with it. I was wondering about the origins of the song as I noticed the timelessness of the lyrics, so I did some research and thought you might be interested in it too.
The song “Oh Holy Night” was written in 1843, originally as a French poem. A Catholic priest walked into Placide Cappeau’s wine shop in Roquemaure, France knowing Placide was a poet. The priest needed a powerful poem for his Christmas Eve homily and knew Placide could pen something quickly.
Unknown to the priest, Placide was in a faith crisis of his own at that time and wasn’t sure about saying yes to this request. Placide tells that he sat down with the book of Luke and re-read the Christmas story then considered the struggles of people living in 1843. After that, inspiration flowed for what we know today as the song, “Oh Holy Night.”
As I researched what it was like to be a human in 1840s France, I found these years were marked by a skepticsm of religion following the Spanish Inquisition, a deepening divide among aristocracy and the poor, economic instability following the French Revolution, great suffering from famine and pandemics, agricultural challenges and drought that led to higher food prices, and the fast rise of industrial factories was causing human labor abuse. This was 180 years ago across the ocean, yet many of the same struggles are happening in our country today. Placide said yes to the priest, despite his reluctance, and began to work on a poem that would give people hope when hope was hard to find.
The priest read the poem in his Christmas Eve mass that year, but Placide kept thinking the poem needed to be sung, not read. So he asked Adolphe Adam, a French composer of Jewish faith to add music and turn his poem into a song. In 1847, the song was first sung on Christmas Eve to rave reviews and was shared throughout France as a hymn. A Christian hymn about a Jewish baby born in a manger. A work of musical art created by a Christian poet in a faith crisis and a Jewish composer.
In 1855, it was translated into English by John Sullivan Dwight who was an American leading the abolitionist movement and was drawn toward the anti-slavery themes in the song. He saw this song, not as a Christmas carol, but instead as a profound reflection on humanity’s longing for peace, salvation, freedom, and hope.
O holy night! the stars are brightly shining;
It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
Till He appeared 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, O holy night, O night divine!
Led by the light of faith serenely beaming,
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.
So led by light of a star sweetly gleaming,
Here came the Wise Men from Orient land.
The King of kings lay thus in lowly manger,
In all our trials born to be our Friend.
He knows our need— to our weakness is no stranger.
Behold your King, before Him lowly bend!
Behold your King, before Him lowly bend!
Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother,
And in His name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we;
Let all within us praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! O praise His name forever!
His pow’r and glory evermore proclaim!
His pow’r and glory evermore proclaim!
I hope your soul knows its worth and our weary world rejoices as we celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah this week. Our two faiths created this beautiful song together.
May we enter this week with a spirit of unity and shared humanity for all of our souls.
With endless love,
