Silent Night (or Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht) was first performed on December 24, 1818 in the Church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorff, Austria. The text was originally only a poem, composed by Father Joseph Mohr while appointed to a pilgrim church in Mariapfarr, Austria.

“The original script is dated 1816 and is the only one existing [that] bears Joseph's handwriting,” says the Silent Night Museum in Salzburg.

When appointed to the Church of St. Nikolaus in 1817, Mohr asked the schoolmaster (and church organist) Franz Xaver Gruber to add music to the lyrics. A year later at Midnight Mass on December 24, the song was sung for the first time.

Since then, Silent Night has crossed linguistic barriers. Silent Night Web, a website devoted to the carol, boasts a collection of 201 versions of the song in 135 different languages.

Across different generations, artists as diverse as Bing Crosby, Olivia Newton John, Sinead O’Connor, Enya and Bon Jovi have performed renditions of the song. In addition, Silent Night is performed every year at Christmas concerts around the world.

Perhaps the carol’s most memorable singing took place during the First World War, when English and German soldiers ceased fighting during the Christmas Truce of 1914 and sang Silent Night together. The carol was one of few whose lyrics were known by soldiers on both sides of the trenches; as the song’s poignant melody spread across the battlefields that night, everyone was reminded of the importance of peace.