The Silent Night Story

The Silent Night Story-

OBERNDORF, Austria, Each year on December 24, a special passenger train pulled by a bright red electric locomotive heads out of the train station in Salzburg for a half-hour trip to the village of Oberndorf, A multitude of languages can be heard as passengers from all over the globe become Christmas pilgrims, heading for the birthplace of the world's best-loved Christmas carol "Silent Night,"
At the same time, the Oberndorf streets are crowded with cars bearing license plates from neighboring European Church can be seen across the nations and filled with people who have raced along the autobahns to arrive in time for the special Christmas Eve "Silent Night" twilight service.
Throughout the world; "Silent Night" which has been translated into more than 200 languages, is and anchor for Christmas celebrations. 
Its lullaby-like melody and simple message of heavenly peace can be

heard from small town street corners in mid-America to magnificent cathedrals in Europe and from outdoor candlelight concerts in Australia to palm thatched huts in northern Peru. 
The original church of St. Nicholas, where "Silent Night " was first heard in 1818, was torn down in the early part of this century after sustaining damage from the flooding of the nearby Salzach River. 
The Silent Night Chapel was erected on the spot in front of the main altar where Gruber and Mohr stood with the choir to sing the six-stanza carol. In a higher section of town, another church was built and the original pulpit and altars from the old church were moved there. 
At Christmas Midnight Mass, singers stand in front of the same altars and recreate the moment when the song heard 'round the world was 
first performed.  
by Bill Egan, Christmas Historian

Silent Night has always been one of my favorite Christmas Songs my dear Follower/Readers and When I found this story by Bill Egan I just loved it so much i just had to share with you all. I had never heard of the story behind the song of 'Silent Night' and when I found this I thought you all might like to know to in the Spirit of Christmas. Merry Christmas my dears only 12days..much love to your all. Wendy

Christmas Fairies2

Merry Christmas to All my dear Readers- 
Only 12 days away-
For today's Christmas post I thought I would 
Put a few of the fairy images that I found for the Christmas
Spirit... Happy Holidays my dears...

Wendy...





The True Spirit of Giving -

The True Spirit of Giving 
It's just a small, white envelope stuck among the branches of our

Christmas tree. No name, no identification, no inscription. It has peeked through the branches of our tree for the past 10 years or so.

It all began because my husband Mike hated Christmas, oh, not the true meaning of Christmas, but the commercial aspects of it -overspending...the frantic running around at the last minute to get a tie for Uncle Harry and the dusting powder for Grandma-- the gifts given in desperation because you couldn't think of anything else. Knowing he felt this way, I decided one year to bypass the usual shirts, sweaters, ties and so forth. I reached for something special just for Mike.
The inspiration came in an unusual way. Our son Kevin, who was 12 that year, was wrestling at the junior level at the school he attended; and shortly before Christmas, there was a non-league match against a team 
Sponsored by an inner-city church. These youngsters, dressed in sneakers so ragged that shoestrings seemed to be the only thing holding them together, presented a sharp contrast to our boys in their spiffy blue and gold uniforms and sparkling new wrestling shoes.
As the match began, I was alarmed to see that the other team was 
wrestling without headgear, a kind of light helmet designed to protect a wrestler's ears. It was a luxury the ragtag team obviously could not afford.
Well, we ended up walloping them. We took every weight class, And as each of their boys got up from the mat, he swaggered around in his tatters with false bravado, a kind of street pride that couldn't acknowledge defeat. Mike, seated beside me, shook his head sadly, "I wish just one of them could have won," he said. "They have a lot of 
potential, but losing like this could take the heart right out of them." 

 

Mike loved kids-all kids-and he knew them, having coached little league football, baseball and lacrosse. That's when the idea for his present came.
That afternoon, I went to a local sporting goods store and bought an assortment of wrestling headgear and shoes and sent them anonymously to the inner-city church. 
On Christmas Eve, I placed the enveloped on the tree, I placed the envelope on the tree, the note inside telling Mike what I had done and that his was his gift from me. His smile was the brightest thing about Christmas that year and in succeeding years. For each Christmas, I followed the tradition one year sending a group of mentally handicapped youngsters to a hockey game, another year a check to a pair of elderly brothers whose home had burned to the ground the week before Christmas and on  and on.
The envelope became the highlight of our Christmas. It was always the last thing opened on Christmas morning and our children, ignoring their new toys, would stand with wide-eyed anticipation as their dad lifted the envelope from the tree to reveal its contents.   
As the children grew, the toys gave way to more practical presents, but the envelope never lost it's allure. The story doesn't end there. You see, we lost Mike last year due to dreaded cancer. When Christmas rolled around. I was still so wrapped in grief that I barely got the tree up. But Christmas Eve found me placing an envelope on the tree and in the morning, it was joined by three more.
Each of our children, unbeknownst to the others, had placed an envelope on the tree for their dad. The traditions has grown and someday will expand even further with our grandchildren standing around the tree with wide-eyed anticipation watching as their fathers take down the envelope. Mike's spirit, like the Christmas Spirit will 
Always be with us!" 
-Author Unknown-
I hope that you all Enjoyed this Wonderful story on the True Spirit of 
Christmas.. I found it to be very enlightening myself.. Much love to you all my dears Wendy..