As we anticipate celebrating the birth of Christ through the season of Advent, I wanted to share the history behind the beautiful Christmas hymn “O Holy Night.”
“O Holy Night” has an unusual origin beginning in the town of Roquemaure in Southern France. To celebrate the completion of renovations to the church organ, a local parish priest hired poet and wine merchant, Placide Cappeau, to write a poem for Christmas mass. Known more for his poetry than his church attendance, Cappaeau penned the poem, using the Gospel of Luke as his guide, while riding on a stagecoach to Paris.
Cappeau then sought out his Jewish friend Adolphe Adam, a well-known composer of French Operas and ballets, to transform the poem into a song. Adam crafted a beautiful musical score to accompany the poem. Initially, the hymn was wholeheartedly accepted by the church in France but soon after it was denounced by French church leadership. The church deemed it unfit because the writer walked away from the Catholic church and joined the socialist movement, and the composer did not believe in Jesus Christ.
A decade later the song made its way to the influential American music critic, John Sullivan Dwight, a Unitarian Minister. Dwight, who was an ardent slave abolitionist, translated the song into English which we now know as “O Holy Night.” Dwight strongly identified with the power behind verse three that says, “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.” He then published the song in his magazine and it quickly found favour in America, especially in the North during the Civil War.
In 1906, Reginald Fessenden, the former chief chemist for Thomas Edison, did something long thought impossible. For the first time in history, a man’s voice was broadcast over the airwaves. Fessenden spoke into the microphone and began reciting the birth of Christ from Luke chapter two and after he finished picked up his fiddle and sang live the hymn “O Holy Night.”
So, remember for great conversation with your family and friends over Christmas that the beautiful hymn “O Holy Night” was based on a poem written by a French heathen, composed by a Jewish man, rejected by the church, translated by an American Unitarian, and was the first song ever heard over airwaves to the tune of a fiddle.
This season, let’s keep our heart and eyes on our Lord and Saviour by remembering His first coming on that Holy Night, and be encouraged that His second coming is imminent.
And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:10–11 ESV)
Bill Gemaehlich is the EVP/COO operations at Insight for Living Ministries
