Christmas special: The story behind the carol 'Silent Night'

The cherished Christmas carol Silent Night, was written by a priest named Fr Mohr and set to music for a Christmas service at St Nicholas church in the village of Oberndorf in Austria in 1818.

When Fr Mohr discovered that the church organ wasn’t working, the 25-year-old priest was determined that there would be special music at Christmas. 

Legend has it that Fr Mohr had earlier written 'Silent Night' as a poem, inspired by a walk from his grandfather's house back to the church in 1816. The music was only added two years later, by his teacher friend Franz Gruber, who composed the melody hours before the Christmas service in 1818. At the midnight mass, Fr Mohr and Gruber sang each of the six verses with the church choir repeating the last two lines of each verse, which was then performed for the church goers just a few minutes later.

The original words to Silent Night were in German, it was called 'Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht'. Fr Mohr's original manuscript of Silent Night which he penned down in 1820, still exists and is displayed in the Carolino Augusteum Museum in Salzburg. On March 2011, Silent Night was declared an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO.

It is not known what exactly the inspiration behind the song was, but for more than 200 years, this humble song reminds us of the special story of another silent night, the birth of Jesus.

Watch: The beautiful tale of Silent Night: