December 2018 marked 200 years since the first performance of the world’s favourite carol, Silent Night. The words had been written a couple of years earlier by Joseph Mohr and on Christmas Eve 1818 he asked his friend Franz Xaver Gruber to write a simple tune for his words. The song was to be sung at the end of mass by Mohr and Gruber in their village church in Oberndorf near Salzburg, Austria.
In December 2018 I went to Oberndorf to find out the origins of Silent Night. Here’s my thoughts as I stood outside the chapel.
Click on the words SILENT NIGHT to listen.
Here’s some videos I made on my trip to Oberndorf.