O du fröhliche is a German Christmas carol

Christmas carol

A Christmas carol is a carol whose lyrics are on the theme of Christmas or the winter season in general and which are traditionally sung in the period before Christmas.-History:...

. The author of the original is the famous Weimar

Weimar

Weimar is a city in Germany famous for its cultural heritage. It is located in the federal state of Thuringia , north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 65,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899...

 "orphan father" Johannes Daniel Falk

Johannes Daniel Falk

Johannes Daniel Falk was a German poet.Falk was born in Danzig in the Polish province of Royal Prussia. In 1816 he wrote the German text O Du Fröhliche.. to the melody of one of the most popular Christmas songs, O Sanctissima. Falk was the founder of the Falk'sche Institute, a public education...

 (1768-1826). Heinrich Holzschuher (1798-1847) from Wunsiedel wrote the latter three verses, which are sung today.

The Original Song

After Johannes Daniel Falk lost four of his seven children to typhoid fever

Typhus

Epidemic typhus is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters...

, he founded das Rettungshaus für verwahrloste Kinder (lit. the rescue center for abandoned children) in Weimar. In 1816 he dedicated this song to the children of the orphanage. The Melody was taken from „O sanctissima, o Purissima, dulcis virgo Maria

O Sanctissima

O Sanctissima is a Roman Catholic hymn in Latin to the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is claimed that the tune of the hymn is Sicilian.The tune is sometimes called Sicilian Mariners Hymn or Mariners Hymn.The words of the first verse of the hymn in Latin are:...

“ which is still sung in Italy. Falk found this song in Johann Gottfried Herder

Johann Gottfried Herder

Johann Gottfried von Herder was a German philosopher, theologian, poet, and literary critic. He is associated with the periods of Enlightenment, Sturm und Drang, and Weimar Classicism.-Biography:...

s (1744-1803) collection Stimmen der Völker in Liedern. In its original version, the song was titled „Allerdreifeiertagslied“, or „A Song for Three Holidays“ in which is mentioned the three major festivals of Christianity Christmas

Christmas

Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...

, Easter

Easter

Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...

 and Pentecost

Pentecost

Pentecost is a prominent feast in the calendar of Ancient Israel celebrating the giving of the Law on Sinai, and also later in the Christian liturgical year commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Christ after the Resurrection of Jesus...

.

Original Lyrics

Original German	Literal translation
	O (you) joyful, O (you) blessed, (O you) graceful Christmas time! The world was lost, Christ is born: Rejoice, rejoice, O Christianity! O (you) joyful, O (you) blessed, (O) graceful time of Easter! World lay in bondage, Christ is risen: Rejoice, rejoice, O Christianity! O joyful, O blessed, (O) graceful Pentecost time! Christ our Master, sanctify the spirits: Rejoice, rejoice, O Christianity!

Today's text

The song became famous as a christmas carol which took its first verse verbatim from John Daniel Falk. The second and third verses were written by Heinrich Holzschuher, an assistant to Falk, in 1829. Its current form (with some regional differences in the text) is:

Modern German	Literal translation
	O (you) joyful, O blessed, (O) graceful Christmas time! The world was lost, Christ is born: Rejoice, rejoice, O Christianity! O (you) joyful, O (you) blessed, (O you) graceful Christmas time! Christ appeared to our atonement: Rejoice, rejoice, O Christianity! O (you) joyful, O (you) blessed, (O you) graceful Christmas time! Heavenly armies rejoicing to honor you: Rejoice, rejoice, O Christianity!

O Du Fröhliche has been translated into many languages including English (Oh how joyfully) French, Latin, and Swedish (O du saliga, o du heliga,).

Lyrics to the English version are:

Oh, how joyfully; Oh, how merrily

Christmas comes with its grace divine

Grace again is beaming

Christ the world redeeming;

Hail, ye Christians,

Hail the joyous Christmas time

Religious Use and Importance

The song is used in the Lutheran Evangelische Gesangbuch (EG 44), in various parts of the German Catholic

Catholic

The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

 Church's Gotteslobs, in the Free Church

Free Church

The proper noun Free Church may refer to:Europe-wide:* Evangelical Lutheran Free Churchin Germany:* Evangelical Lutheran Free Church * Independent Evangelical-Lutheran Churchin Iceland:*Reykjavík Free Churchin Norway:...

 Feiern & Loben (F&L 220) and in the Mennonite

Mennonite

The Mennonites are a group of Christian Anabaptist denominations named after the Frisian Menno Simons , who, through his writings, articulated and thereby formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss founders...

Mennonitische Gesangbuch (MG 264). In the protestant churches of Germany, the song is traditionally sung at the end of Christmas Eve services.

Literature

• Johannes Daniel Falk: Zweiter Bericht der Gesellschaft der Freunde in der Noth, Weimar 1817