Christmas carols...

Date of Issue : 16 November 2017

Swiss Post will issue four special stamps for this Christmas featuring musical gems as Christmas motifs.The stamps are so beautiful and anyone would love to have them in collection.Here are four popular Christmas songs featured on these stamps as motifs. Swiss Post will also issue set of  four A6 double  cards with these motifs.

1."Snow falls softly at night" was written – and possibly also composed – by Protestant pastor Eduard Ebel (1839–1905). However, he may also have taken up an old folk tune. At any rate, he himself considered it a nursery rhyme.

2."Jingle Bells" was written in the mid-19th century by the American composer James Lord Pierpont. Although it’s not strictly a Christmas song, it is sung all over the world at Christmas.

3.The lyrics of "Silent Night" were originally taken from a Christmas poem written by assistant priest Joseph Mohr (1792–1848) from the Austrian village of Arnsdorf and Franz Xaver Gruber composed the hauntingly beautiful melody. Today the carol is sung in countless languages around world.

4.In the case of "We wish you a merry Christmas", the writer is lost in the mists of time. A traditional English carol dating back to the 16th century, it also looks beyond Christmas to the beginning of the New Year.