I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day

Although it isn’t as well-known as other 20th century holiday songs, “I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day” is one of the most moving Christmas songs ever written. The most well-known version was composed by Johnny Marks in 1956 and recorded by Bing Crosby. The origin of the song, however, dates back to 1863, in the middle of The American Civil War. Two years after the death of his beloved wife in 1861, a fifty-six year old Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote the poem “Christmas Bells” as a reaction to his son joining the Union Army to fight in the war even though Longfellow did not believe he should do so. In November of 1863 his son was injured in battle. Although he survived, this was all too much for Longfellow to take without reacting in the best way he knew how. On Christmas Day, 1863, he wrote the poem which led to the modern version of the song sung now.

The modern version only incorporates verses one, two, six, and seven. Although the overall message of peace on earth is not lost in this reworking, there is a giant leap in context when the middle verses are removed. This was obviously done by Marks to remove the literal connections to the South in the war, but seventy years later one would like to think that the complete context can be appreciated by an intelligent public.

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
and wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth,” I said;
“For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men.”

The Christmas Truce of 1914

In addition to my obsession with music, I am a World War I buff. One of my favorite WWI stories is The Christmas Truce of 1914. If you aren’t up on your WWI history, this is about four months after the start of a war that was already one of the most deadly and horrifying wars in history, and was only going to get more deadly and horrifying over the course of the next four years. The original belief was that the war would be over in months, but on Christmas Eve 1914 the war was nowhere near an end. In this context, it may make sense that on that day, all along the Western Front trenches, there was a pause in the killing when the British soldiers began to hear singing coming from the German trenches on the other side of “no-man’s land.” This led to German soldier’s telling British soldiers to come across to them – a request that seemed fraught with peril after months of killing of anyone who dared poke his head out of his trench – and the English replied that they would if the German’s would meet half way. What ensued is impossible to imagine, especially to anyone who understands the amount of death inflicted during the war. For the rest of that day, and sometimes even longer, British and German soldiers laid down their guns, met, exchanged gifts, and even took part in makeshift football (soccer) matches.

This is a beautiful story, but it has always been most impactful to me because, according to legend, the first of these truces occurred when a German officer named Walter Kirchhoff (a tenor with the Berlin Opera) sang “Silent Night” in German and then in English. As his voice carried across “no-man’s land,” the joy of the holiday was more powerful than the fear of the soldiers, and the fighting, although only briefly, was stopped. The singing of this one man turned into singing by entire lines of soldiers on both sides, one of the greatest examples of the healing power of music in history.

This may sound like a nice allegory – a quaint story of how “music can tame the wild beast” – but it is all true. There are photos you can easily find, and there are thousands of letters written home to parents, wives, and loved ones that explain the impact of this night on the soldiers and their revelation that the enemy aren’t any different than themselves.