Why are some Christmas carols sung in different languages?

Christmas carol season is upon us, and you might feel as if you’re hearing (and maybe singing) the well-loved songs on repeat. And you are right — but at least there’s a little variation in some of your favorites.

Many carols have sprung from languages other than English, leading to possible confusion: Hey, doesn’t “Adeste Fideles” sound just like “O Come, All Ye Faithful”? That’s because it’s the same hymn, sung in Latin.

It’s not the only Christmas favorite that is commonly sung in different languages, but it might be the most common. The carol’s words are commonly attributed to John Francis Wade, an English Catholic living in exile in France in the 18th century. He wrote four verses, all in Latin. Later, French priest Jean-Francois-Etienne Borderies wrote an additional three verses, also in Latin.

The most common English version, “O Come, All Ye Faithful,” was cobbled together from all seven Latin verses by Frederick Oakely and William Thomas Brooke in the mid-19th century.

Here’s “Adeste Fideles” from the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus.

And here’s Josh Groban’s English version, with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Here are more examples of dual-language carols.

‘O Tannenbaum’/’O Christmas Tree’

Germany has been the source of many Christmas carols. Ironically, “O Tannenbaum” was not written to celebrate the holiday.

The original lyrics were penned in 1834 by Ernst Anschütz, an organist/composer from Leipzig, and don’t actually refer to Christmas or a decorated tree. “Tannenbaum” is German for “fir tree”; the words praise the tree as an evergreen symbol of faithfulness. (The folk song that Anschütz adapted contrasted the steadfast tree to a faithless maiden.)

After the custom of decorating a tree for Christmas developed later in the 19th century, Anschütz added two verses that were more reflective of the holiday, and the song came to be seen as a Christmas carol. The origins of the most common English translation are nebulous.

Here’s Nat King Cole’s iconic version of “O Tannenbaum.”

And here’s “O Christmas Tree,” by the equally iconic Aretha Franklin.

‘Stille Nacht’/’Silent Night’

This most-recorded carol (in both languages) has its origins in a small Austrian church in the early 19th century. Young priest Joseph Mohr wrote the words as a poem in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars. On Christmas Eve in 1818, he asked local organist Franz Gruber to compose an appropriate melody and guitar accompaniment — on the double, as his church’s organ had been destroyed by flooding and he needed music for that evening’s mass.

It proved a fruitful connection. By the 1840s, “Stille Nacht” was widely performed throughout Europe and had arrived in the United States. Indeed, the English version was devised using three of Mohr’s original six verses in 1859 by John Freeman Young, an Episcopal priest serving New York City’s Trinity Church.

Because of its great popularity, “Stille Nacht” has been translated into 300 languages, but the German and English versions remain by far the most well-known and sung.

The King’s Singers perform “Stille Nacht,” in an arrangement by John Rutter.

And here’s Frank Sinatra’s English version.

‘Es Ist ein Ros Entsprungen’/’Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming’

The “rose springing up” of this German carol represents the Virgin Mary. Because the hymn includes references to the prophecies of Isaiah, foretelling the birth of Jesus, it is widely sung during the season of Advent.

The German text dates from an unknown author in the 15th century and is thought to have been in use in church settings at the time of Martin Luther. The carol was translated into English in 1894 by American musicologist Theodore Baker, who had studied extensively in Leipzig.

The music dates from 1609, attributed to Michael Praetorius. Here is the British ensemble Voces8 with the German version.

Renee Fleming sings the English version with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

‘In Dulci Jubilo’/’Good Christian Men, Rejoice’

The original Latin carol (translated to “In Sweet Rejoicing”) dates from the Middle Ages, thought to be written by German mystic Heinrich Seuse in 1328.

The most common English version was written in 1853 by John Mason Neale, who also contributed “Good King Wenceslas” and “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” to the Christmas carol canon. The title these days is often rendered as “Good Christian Friends” or “Good Christian Folk.” 

Here’s a version that combines the English and Latin lyrics, by the Robert Shaw Chorale.

Here’s an instrumental version (fill in your own words!) by English musician Mike Oldfield: