Christmas Eve in 1818, in a little village in Austria, in a snowstorm, the organ was broken.
Winters were still cold and snowy from the "
Year without a summer" in 1816. That's snow joke! So a song was composed to be played on a
guitar, written in German as "
Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht".
The ancient Greek word
"κιθαρα" ≈ "stringed instrument".
[Sound of Music, Over hill, over dale, Neander valley, Praise to the Lord]
This Geek word is the source of the English word "
guitar" through Spanish through Arabic through Latin through Greek. In the Bible, the word means a string instrument, which can be a harp, lyre or other instrument.
