Your Spark

 

You never know when something you do or something you say will spark a flame of hope for someone else.

This is the true origin story of the most recorded song in the world, from Erste, a financial services firm in Austria.

“The story begins in the Austrian village of Obendorf in the winter of 1818, when a young man, revealed to be the town’s priest, Joseph Mohr, notices his neighbors struggling to feel the Christmas spirit amid poverty and low morale following the Napoleonic Wars.

Inspired to lift their spirits, he joins forces with music teacher and friend Franz Xaver Gruber, who helped him compose a song on Christmas Eve. Called “Silent Night,” they perform it later that same evening to the townsfolk at mass.”

The rest of the short film captures ripples in time to demonstrate the impact of the song globally— a Tyrolean choir performs it for Austrian Emperor Franz I in 1822; violinist Reginald Fesseden plays it during the first-ever radio entertainment broadcast in America in 1906; soldiers on the Western Front—German and English—lay down their arms to sing together in the trenches during a rare moment of peace during World War I.”

God knows our world could use peace and hope right now…

And I love this campaign for a group I didn’t know existed:

Finally, the power of wishes – taking a moment to think about all those who are spending this Christmas serving our country in war zone, or caring for our sick and wounded in hospitals…

 

 

 

*quoted material from AdAge.com
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