"O du fröhliche" (O, how joyful) is a German Christmas carol. The author of the original text was the prominent Weimar "orphan father" Johannes Daniel Falk (1768–1826), who set his lyric to the anonymous hymn-tune "O Sanctissima" (O most holy). Shortly after Falk's death, his former assistant Heinrich Holzschuher (1798–1847) from Wunsiedel completed the set of three verses that are sung today.
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Original song
After Falk lost four of his seven children to typhoid fever, he founded the Rettungshaus für verwahrloste Kinder (Rescue house for abandoned children) in Weimar. In late 1815 or early 1816, he dedicated this song to the children of the orphanage. The melody was taken from the anonymous Catholic hymn "O Sanctissima" (also known as "Sicilian Mariners Hymn"), which he found in the posthumous edition of J.G. Herder's Stimmen der Völker in Liedern after hearing it sung by Pietro Granucci, an Italian foundling under his care. In Falk's original text, the song was titled "Allerdreifeiertagslied" (A song for three holidays), highlighting the three major festivals of Christianity: Christmas, Easter and Pentecost.
Today's text
The song became famous as a Christmas carol that took its first verse verbatim from Johannes Daniel Falk. The second and third verses were partially rewritten in 1826 by Heinrich Holzschuher, a former assistant to Falk. The song's current form (with some regional differences in the text) is:
Common lyrics to the English version are:
The hymn has been translated into many languages, including English ("O, how joyfully"), French, Latin, Swedish ("O du saliga, o du heliga"), Norwegian ("Å du heilage, nådeberande"), Czech ("Ó ty radostný čase vánoční"), and Esperanto ("Feliĉega vi, ĉarmoplena vi").
Religious use and importance
The song is used in the current German Protestant hymnal Evangelisches Gesangbuch (EG 44), in various regional editions of the German Catholic Gotteslob, in the Free Church Feiern & Loben (F&L 220) and in the Mennonite Mennonitisches Gesangbuch (MG 264). In the Protestant churches of Germany, the song is traditionally sung at the end of Christmas Eve services.