Stille Nacht - Silent Night

Fr. Josef Mohr wrote a Christmas poem back in 1816. Two years later, on Christmas Eve, he asked the organist at the parish where he was serving to put the words to music for the midnight Mass that same evening. His friend Franz Gruber came through for him and "Silent Night" was born. The carol grew steadily in popularity and has been sung ever since.

100 years ago this evening, to the consternation of their chains of command, German and British soldiers sang this and other Christmas songs to each other in unofficial, locally-called truces at various points along the front. It was the first Christmas of World War I. [1, 2, 3]