Welcome back to Country Music 4 Ever! The Christmas season is upon us once again. I’m sure some of you began your decorating and Christmas shopping months ago, and others, I’m sure, haven’t started yet. Regardless of what stage of the Christmas season you’re in, there’s nothing like a good Christmas song to get you in the spirit. 

I’m going to begin a series of Christmas posts that will lead up to Christmas. This series will take you behind the scenes of some of your favorite Christmas carols, such as “White Christmas” and “The First Noel.” Who wrote these songs? What was the inspiration behind them? These questions, as well as many others, will be answered in this series. Today I will begin with “Silent Night.”

“Silent Night” was written by a young priest in Austria named Joseph Mohr in 1816. Joseph wrote the song after taking a walk and looking out over a very quiet town and being inspired by the town being so peaceful. However, it wasn’t until Christmas Eve two years later that the song would first be performed.

On Christmas Eve in 1818, the organ broke at Joseph’s church, forcing everyone to sing with a guitar accompaniment. The repairman who was working on the organ took a copy of “Silent Night” home with him and gave it to some traveling folk musicians in his village.

“Silent Night” was soon being performed everywhere from Europe to New York City and was also translated into over 300 languages.

“Silent Night” has been recorded over 137,000 times. It has become a very popular song in country music, being recorded by countless country stars such as Carrie Underwood, Dolly Parton, George Strait, and many others.

Thanks for reading. I’ll be back soon with another Christmas post. If you have a favorite Christmas carol and would like to learn more about it, let me know in the comments, and I will include it in this series.