Silent Night, Holy Night, Tambora Volcano and Switzerland

19 December 2024

The Tambora volcano eruption in Indonesia in April 1815 caused a significant cooling of the earth. It was the largest recorded eruption, killing 90,000 people and sending about 150 cubic kilometres of dust and ash thirty kilometres into the atmosphere. The force was equal to 170,000′ Hiroshima bombs’.

The cooling was also felt in Switzerland and other countries of Central Europe. It snowed in the valleys and rained continuously in the summer months. 1815 and 1816 were years’ without a summer and the times around 1818 were hard anyway after the Napoleonic Wars (1792-1815).

Floods, poor harvests, and a great famine resulted. This period lasted until 1819, when average temperatures returned. It also marked the last great famine in Switzerland, especially in the northeastern part of the new Confederation, founded in 1815.

The dust and ash in the atmosphere also changed the colours of the sunrise and sunset. The sunlight reflected, and beautiful violet, orange, red, blue, and green combinations could be seen (see also the romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich (1176-1840)  in this context).

However, it did not alleviate hunger in Switzerland and the surrounding areas. The Austrian Father Joseph Mohr (1792-1848) and Franz Xaver Gruber (1787-1863) brought spiritual relief.

They composed “Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht” for Christmas 1818 in and for the hungry village of Oberndorf (near Salzburg). They were also the first to perform it in the church on Christmas Eve 2018. The Stille Nacht-Kapelle (Silent Night Chapel) now stands on the site of the former church (demolished at the beginning of the 20th century).

In Oberndorf, the song signalled solidarity, solidarity and comfort. Within a few years, it was also known in Switzerland, without social media, but because of the quality of the composition.

Today, ‘Silent Night, Holy Night’ is the most successful Christmas carol of all time (and not the modern carols). More than two billion people sing it in over three hundred languages and dialects and many variations.

However, it did not earn its creators any money or royalties. Joseph Mohr died poor, Franz Xaver Gruber moved to Hallein and found recognition, but no rappen for his ‘hit’.

(Source: Stille Nacht Museum Hallein; Akademie der Naturwissenschaften Schweiz)