O Holy Night!

 

The Mario Lanzo song I grew up on.  He has a beautiful voice.

I really like the Nat King Cole version.

But imagine my surprise when I found Weezer singing it on youtube!  Gotta love this.

 

As a small child, my father had certain vinyl records he would take out for Christmas.  One of these was  a Mario Lanzo recording of Christmas songs.  We all loved listening to his

 version of "O holy night".  Since then, something about the tune, the words, the essence of the song has moved my heart.

The lyrics were written by a poet , Cappeau , who was commissioned by a priest to write a Christmas poem  in France in the mid 1800s.  The poet was neither musically inclined, nor religiously inclined.  He was inspired, however, by the book of Luke when writing it.  And he felt that his poem was so inspired, that it should be put to music.  He went to a friend, who wrote the melody, and it began to be sung throughout the country.  However, since  Cappeau was not part of the church, and later became a socialist (which of course in theory is totally unbiblical, ;}  ) , the song was soon banned.  

There was a lot more drama involved and you can read about it here, o holy night  

Long story short, it remained popular, despite the ban, and was translated into many languages.  What I find extremely interesting, is that the song actually became an anti-slavery song in the United States. 

This verse in particular became the abolitionists' theme:

"Truly he taught us to love one another
His law is love and His gospel is peace
Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother 

And in His name all oppression shall cease" 

 

This song sends chills up my spine, when I hear it.  Especially when I think about the inspiration it has on so many levels.