Singing this hymn used to do my head in as a child. In Scotland we sing Still the Night not the English version called Silent Night. The words are similar but there are little differences, and when I attended school in Australia I would get confused because the words weren’t quite right. One of my music teachers in high school said to the entire class that everyone knows the song. Not so, there are multiple versions of the song.
I remember asking my dad about this and he said we sing the German version in Scotland. That was what was taken as a given, however the wording is slightly different again, perhaps due to translation.
This is the Wikipedia page for the German language and English language versions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Night
It turns out the version I know is one of the Presbyterian versions. We used a Scottish Hymnal or hymnary of the Church of Scotland in our schools and churches when I was a child. I remember my parents buying my brother and I our own hymnaries (Hymnals), when we started school. I came across these books when my father was moving into the retirement home a few years ago. Old memories came back in a flash and it all seemed like a million years ago.
http://forum.ship-of-fools.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=print_topic;f=70;t=024981 #1
https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=41727 #2
Above are two an interesting discussions on the history of the song and the confusion surrounding the wording.
Some of the words that I remember are below.
Still the night, holy the night (the opening line)
Sleep in heavenly peace / heavenly rest (part of the chorus)
In the version that I knew we sang, “Christ the redeemer is here”, at the end of the song.
It’s all as clear as mud to be honest, but the Scottish versions are much closer to the original German version. These days I am more familiar with the English version when listening to Christmas music, but I still mentally insert the Scottish version 🤣🤣🤣🎄🎄🎄
I hope everyone enjoys the silly season. I personally do not observe the religious side of Christmas. To me it is an ancient winter season celebration in the northern hemisphere countries and the winter solstice which much older than Christianity. But what ever floats your boat is what matters.
Warm and fuzzy hugs
