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This is my last Christmas song for the season. Promise! But the story is so inspiring despite the dire circumstances, that I needed to post it again… You might even learn something you didn’t know!

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On December 7, 1914, Pope Benedict XV suggested a temporary hiatus of the war for the celebration of Christmas. The warring countries refused to create any official cease-fire, but on Christmas the soldiers in the trenches declared their own unofficial truce.*

First world war soldiers playing footballStarting on Christmas Eve, many German and British troops sang Christmas carols to each other across the lines, and at certain points the Allied soldiers even heard brass bands joining the Germans in their joyous singing.

At the first light of dawn on Christmas Day, some German soldiers emerged from their trenches and approached the Allied lines across no-man’s-land, calling out “Merry Christmas” in their enemies’ native tongues. At first, the Allied soldiers feared it was a trick, but seeing the Germans unarmed they climbed out of their trenches and TRUCE_Christmas_Truce_2shook hands with the enemy soldiers. The men exchanged presents of cigarettes and plum puddings and sang carols and songs. There was even a documented case of soldiers from opposing sides playing a good-natured game of soccer. Some soldiers used this short-lived ceasefire for a more somber task: the retrieval of the bodies of fellow combatants who had fallen within the no-man’s land between the lines.

The-first-world-war-Chris-012The so-called Christmas Truce of 1914 came only five months after the outbreak of war in Europe and was one of the last examples of the outdated notion of chivalry between enemies in warfare. It was never repeated—future attempts at holiday ceasefires were quashed by officers’ threats of disciplinary action—but it served as heartening proof, however brief, that beneath the brutal clash of weapons, the soldiers’ essential humanity endured.

During World War I, the soldiers on the Western Front did not expect to celebrate on the battlefield, but even a world war could not destory the Christmas spirit. (The History Channel)

And if you’d like to SEE the story, this is the advertisement from Britain’s Sainsbury’s Christmas ad for 2014.

 

(*I understand that during the first years of WWI there were actually TWO truces, one in 1914 and one 1915. Not sure which of these pictures come from which. But the sentiments were still the same in both events…)

 

Picture Credits
soccer match — world.time.com
Christmas truce — www.stmgrts.org.uk
soldier with cigarette — www.theguardian.com