Longfellow wrote the poem on Christmas Day in 1863. "Christmas Bells" was first published in February 1865, in Our Young Folks, a juvenile magazine published by Ticknor and Fields.
In 1861, two years before writing this poem, Longfellow's personal peace was shaken when his second wife of 18 years, to whom he was very devoted, was fatally burned in an accidental fire. Then in 1863, during the American Civil War, Longfellow's oldest son, Charles Appleton Longfellow, joined the Union Army without his father's blessing. Longfellow was informed by a letter dated March 14, 1863, after Charles had left. "I have tried hard to resist the temptation of going without your leave but I cannot any longer", he wrote. "I feel it to be my first duty to do what I can for my country and I would willingly lay down my life for it if it would be of any good." Charles was soon appointed as a lieutenant but, in November, he was severely wounded in the Battle of Mine Run. Charles eventually recovered, but his time as a soldier was finished.
The following are the original words of Longfellow's poem:
I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
and mild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
"For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men."
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Heard_the_Bells_on_Christmas_Day
Today the world is full of hate and despair, the winds of war are whistling.
May the sound of the bells bring Hope, Joy and Peace through the birth of the King.
Despite what many people think, within the Christian family and outside
it, the point of it all is not 'to go to heaven when you die'.
The New Testament picks up from the Old the theme that God
intends, in the end, to put the whole creation to rights. Earth and
heaven are made to overlap with one another, not fitfully, mysteriously
and partially as they do at the moment, but completely, gloriously
and utterly. 'The earth shall be filled with the glory of God as the
waters cover the sea.' That is the promise which resonates throughout
the Bible story, from Isaiah, and behind him, by implication, from
Genesis itself, all the way through to Paul's greatest visionary moments
and the final chapters of the book of Revelation. The great drama
will end, not with 'saved souls' being snatched up into heaven, away
from the wicked earth and the mortal bodies which have dragged
them down into sin, but with the New Jerusalem coming down
from heaven to earth, so that 'the dwelling of God is with humans'
(Revelation 21.3)
A little over a hundred years ago, an American pastor in upstate
New York celebrated in a great hymn both the beauty of creation and
the presence of the creator God within it. His name was Maltbie
Babcock, and his hymn 'This is my Father's World' points beyond the
present beauty of creation, through the mess and tragedy with which
it has been infected, to the ultimate resolution. There are different
versions of the relevant stanza, but this one is the clearest:
This is my Father's world; 0 let me ne'er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father's world; The battle is not done;
Jesus, who died, shall be satisfied,
And earth and heaven be one.
In Germany, the first Christmas Trees were decorated with edible things, such as gingerbread and gold covered apples.
Then glass makers made special small ornaments similar to some of the decorations used today. In 1605 an unknown German wrote: "At Christmas they set up fir trees in the parlours of Strasbourg and hang thereon roses cut out of many-colored paper, apples, wafers, gold foil, sweets, etc."
At first, a figure of the Baby Jesus was put on the top of the tree. Over time it changed to an angel/fairy that told the shepherds about Jesus, or a star like the Wise Men saw.
The first Christmas Tree in the UK might well have been set-up by Queen Charlotte, the German wife of King George III. In 1800 she had a tree set-up at the Queen’s Lodge in Windsor for a children's party for rich and noble families. Soon having a tree had become popular amongst some rich families.
Source: https://www.whychristmas.com/customs/trees.shtml
