The Christian message of ‘Silent Night’ has survived all attempts to instrumentalise it for political propaganda, despite the best efforts of tyrannical German leaders

On Christmas Eve this year, “Silent Night” will celebrate its 200th birthday. Countless ­celebrations have already been announced, especially in and around Oberndorf, the small village near Salzburg where it was first performed after Midnight Mass on 24 December 1818. A new musical by the American film composer John Debney entitled My Silent Night opened in the famous Felsenreitschule in Salzburg, a venue of the Salzburg Festival, on 24 November and a commemorative silver coin, strictly limited to 30,000, has already sold out.

Much will no doubt be made of the many romantic legends that have grown up around the story of “Silent Night”. One of the best known is the story of the mice who nibbled away at the bellows of the church organ in Oberndorf until it finally broke down on Christmas Eve 1818, making it necessary for a song for guitar accompaniment to be composed in a hurry – not a word of which is true. The actual story is dramatic enough in itself. “Silent Night” was composed at a time of great political upheaval in Europe, shortly after the end of the Napoleonic Wars and at a time when the people of Oberndorf were suffering the effects of a sharp decline in Salzburg’s economic fortunes. Small wonder that the simple rendering of Christ’s birth and its ­message of peace in “Silent Night”, set to an unforgettable melody closely resembling a lullaby, brought comfort to a congregation feeling insecure and depressed.