Christmas Truce
As I sit here and write, I wonder about how others will spend their Christmas day. Christmas means something different for each of us. For some it is a deeply religious day. For some, it is full of family traditions. For others, this day is barely noticed. Regardless of how you may celebrate or acknowledge this day there is something magical about the Christmas Spirit. It is something that cannot be put into words. It is not about the toys or the decorations, rather it is the feeling of love that connects all humans to each other. So, as we sit and reflect upon a couple of very hard, “not normal” years, let us put our differences aside and celebrate each other, just as soldiers did many years ago.
Let us go back in time, over a hundred years ago, you are a young soldier. It has been a cold dark December and you have been battling in the first World War. It is Christmas Eve, 1914. You are freezing and lonely in a cold, cramped, muddy trench. You are missing your family. You dream of Christmas pasts, where you sat around the warm fire with your family, celebrating Christmas traditions and singing Christmas Carols.
Then around 10 pm, you hear sounds of voices, you listen, and ask the soldier next to you, does he hear it? As you listen more intently, you began to realize, that the soldiers, on the other side of the enemy line-are singing, Christmas Carols to be exact! Suddenly, a voice shouts out, an invitation, in broken English, “Come over.” Your sergeant shouts back that they will come over if they meet them halfway.
At that moment, soldiers from both sides began to climb out of their trenches and meet up in the “barbed wire No Man’s Land” that separated the two sides. British on one side, the Germans on the other. The place where only hours before, where bullets and bodies laid, were now replaced with handshakes and laughter. Soldiers shared songs, tobacco, and wine.
This phenomenon did not just happen on one battlefield. Reports from all over, “French, German, Belgian, and British troops held impromptu cease-fires across the Western front, with reports of some on the Eastern front as well.”
Countless written accounts in diaries and letters captures the different tales of “The Christmas Truce.” Young men sharing stories of trading cigarettes for haircuts, of lighting make-shift Christmas trees with candles, and even playing make-shift football (soccer) games with their enemy soldiers. Kurt Zehmisch of Germany wrote, “How marvelously wonderful, yet how strange it was. The English officers felt the same way about it. Thus Christmas, the celebration of Love, managed to bring mortal enemies together as friends for a time.”
The truces were unofficial, and many in high command were not happy about them, and because of this there is no way of knowing how many soldiers participated in them. The war would continue its deadly path for four more years.
But in that moment in time, on Christmas, soldiers put aside their differences. They were not Germans or French, they were not enemies, they were human.
Let us remember that moment, a hundred years later. When we look at our fellow humans, family, neighbors, friends, and even enemies. Can we put away our differences? Can we meet them halfway?
At the end of the day, we are all human. So let us take the moment and celebrate that connection that is magically meant for only other humans. No matter your beliefs, Christmas is the celebration of love.
May you have a blessed holiday season.
Source:
https://www.history.com/topics/christmas-truce-1914-world-war-i-soldier-accounts