“Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions
of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures
of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveller,
thousands of miles away, back to his own fire-side and his quiet home!”

- Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers, 1836
(07 Feb 1812 - 09 June 1870)

The song was first performed on Christmas Eve 1818 at St Nicholas parish church in Oberndorf, a village on the Salzach river. The young priest, Father Joseph Mohr, had come to Oberndorf the year before. He had already written the lyrics of the song "Stille Nacht" in 1816 at Mariapfarr, the hometown of his father in the Salzburg Lungau region, where Joseph had worked as a coadjutor.

The melody was composed by Franz Xaver Gruber, schoolmaster and organist in the nearby village of Arnsdorf. Before Christmas Eve, Mohr brought the words to Gruber and asked him to compose a melody and guitar accompaniment for the church service.^[1] Both performed the carol during the mass on the night of December 24.

The original manuscript has been lost. However a manuscript was discovered in 1995 in Mohr's handwriting and dated by researchers at ca. 1820. It shows that Mohr wrote the words in 1816 when he was assigned to a pilgrim church in Mariapfarr, Austria, and shows that the music was composed by Gruber in 1818. This is the earliest manuscript that exists and the only one in Mohr's handwriting.

In 1859, the Episcopal priest John Freeman Young, then serving at Trinity Church, New York City, published the English translation that is most frequently sung today.^[2] The version of the melody that is generally used today is a slow, meditative lullaby, differing slightly (particularly in the final strain) from Gruber's original, which was a sprightly, dance-like tune in 6/8 time. Today, the lyrics and melody are in the public domain.

The carol has been translated into about 140 languages.^[3][4]

The song was sung simultaneously in French, English and German by troops during the Christmas truce^[5] of 1914 during World War I, as it was one carol that soldiers on both sides of the front line knew.

2.   From Me ('65) of NC - 12/24/16 - " Diana (Lyons Harty - Portsmouth HS, NH / Eastlake HS, CA - '05)":

  Diana was rushed back to the ER for a CAT scan because of post-op internal bleeding.

  Your continued prayers are requested, as Paul's and Diana's conditions are both potentially life-threatening.

   WOWZERS! Thank you, Sarah Sugah! Merry Christmas!