24 Dec
The Christmas Truce
Our home teacher (a congregational member assigned to teach and care for our family) came over last Sunday and shared this story with us, a story I’ve never heard before. My eyes are tearing up as I type this, as it’s one of the most beautiful examples of the power of the Christmas spirit that I’ve ever heard. The text below was excerpted from an article in the New York Times, which can be read in full here. Each paragraph below represents an account from a soldier who was present at this miraculous event.
It was a beautiful moonlit night, frost on the ground, white almost everywhere; and about 7 or 8 in the evening there was a lot of commotion in the German trenches and there were these lights -I don’t know what they were. And then they sang “Silent Night” - “Stille Nacht.” I shall never forget it, it was one of the highlights of my life. I thought, what a beautiful tune.
Then suddenly lights began to appear along the German parapet, which were evidently make-shift Christmas trees, adorned with lighted candles, which burnt steadily in the still, frosty air! … First the Germans would sing one of their carols and then we would sing one of ours, until when we started up “O Come, All Ye Faithful” the Germans immediately joined in singing the same hymn to the Latin words Adeste Fideles. And I thought, well, this is really a most extraordinary thing - two nations both singing the same carol in the middle of a war.
I shouted to our enemies that we didn’t wish to shoot and that we make a Christmas truce. I said I would come from my side and we could speak with each other. First there was silence, then I shouted once more, invited them, and the British shouted “No shooting!” Then a man came out of the trenches and I on my side did the same and so we came together and we shook hands - a bit cautiously!
We shook hands, wished each other a Merry Xmas, and were soon conversing as if we had known each other for years. We were in front of their wire entanglements and surrounded by Germans - Fritz and I in the center talking, and Fritz occasionally translating to his friends what I was saying. We stood inside the circle like street corner orators. … What a sight - little groups of Germans and British extending almost the length of our front! Out of the darkness we could hear laughter and see lighted matches, a German lighting a Scotchman’s cigarette and vice versa, exchanging cigarettes and souvenirs.
Our Padre … arranged the prayers and psalms, etc., and an interpreter wrote them out in German. They were read first in English by our Padre and then in German by a boy who was studying for the ministry. It was an extraordinary and most wonderful sight. The Germans formed up on one side, the English on the other, the officers standing in front, every head bared.
Eventually the English brought a soccer ball from their trenches, and pretty soon a lively game ensued. 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 our friends for a time.
I'm a farm-raised almost-crunchy stroller-pushing picture-taking lifestyle-blog-writing gastronomy-obsessed divine-seeking thrift-store-combing cheese-inhaling pavement-pounding laughter-sprinkling lover of individuality and taking chances.
I love this story so much. it never ceases to make me smile and cry. there is a GREAT movie about it called Joyeaux Noel. I highly recommend it
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1I’ve always loved this story!!! It’s so beautiful. Hope you’re enjoying Utah!!
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2This story is at once both beautiful and incredibly sad to me. Beautiful because it shows the kindness and love that humans are capable of. And so very sad because it reminds me that in war each side must, in a way, convince themselves that the other side is not like them, not human, and worthy of being killed- yet as this story shows that is simply not true, they were able to fellowship together and they brought each other great joy on that night because of it. An interesting back and forth of emotions happened to me while reading this. Thanks for sharing Jenna!
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3The Christmas truce occurred in other years of the war as well. My grandfather (http://articles.latimes.com/2003/dec/06/local/me-lewis6) would tell us about his 1916 Christmas with the Germans each year and the story never got old! The true power of the holiday lives in all of us!
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4Pretty amazing.
This story brings tears to my eyes everytime I hear it or read it. There is a really wonderful movie about this that I find on TV every year.
Merry Christmas Jenna and family
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5Not to ruin the moment… but I think it’s also so important to ask why even after this time, they could and did go back to killing each other
Such a significant time of brotherhood and recognizing each other’s humanity, and then war the next day. Thus is this world, I guess. Here’s to looking forward to Christ’s Kingdom!
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Sophia Reply:
December 25th, 2010 at 9:58 pm
I agree Jessica, it’s sad to imagine the moral schizophrenia of doing that
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Shannon G. Reply:
December 27th, 2010 at 1:01 pm
They didn’t! There are numerous documented reports of the generals having to move troops around because following this night, these two regiments refused to fight against each other. There is a beautiful narrative and song about it, available at the Chicago Public Radio website: http://www.wbez.org/episode/first-native-welshman-and
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Sophia Reply:
December 27th, 2010 at 2:16 pm
Thank you for the link
To me, the fact that they refused to fight one another reinforces what I was trying to express- namely, it’s sad that they refused to fight each other, because they finally knew and cared about one another as humans, whereas before they were ok with killing and fighting the unknown “other”. That strikes at the heart of the matter of what is so sad about war- that people must be disconnected from the humanity of those whom they are fighting against in order to kill and attack them, you know? As the story showed, and as you pointed out, once they had that connection, they physically couldn’t bring themselves to kill one another. To me, that is a powerful illustration of the ways in which our perceived division and differences allow us to engage in activities against strangers that we could not, morally, engage in against those whom we know and care about.
I’m not trying to be contentious in this reply, I’m just trying to see if maybe I can better explain why this story is simultaneously beautiful and heartbreaking to me. I can appreciate the powerful message it sends, I think it just sent a bit of a different powerful message to me.
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Kim, what an amazing story!
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7I have been reminded of this story many times over the past few weeks because I live in Seoul, South Korea, and with all the renewed tensions, the North has been ‘promising’ another attack on our country by Chirstmas time. Alas, the North sees religion as a threat, but so far we haven’t seen any retaliation, so I count that as our own little Christmas miracle.
A Merry (and peaceful) Christmas to your family
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8They actually made a movie about this called Joyueux Noel, which is really great to watch. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0424205/ And just so Jessica and Sophia know, they actually did not fight after that. In fact, they had such a hard time trying to fight each other that they were punished and sent to other areas since both sides had refused to shoot at each other. Watch the movie…it is a great story!
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9I love this story. I had never read the personal accounts, though. Makes it seem so much more magical.
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10I Love this story! Where did you find the artwork you posted about to go with your write up?
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Jenna Reply:
April 3rd, 2012 at 11:53 pm
You can find the source here! http://imagecache5.art.com/p/LRG/29/2934/TGCRD00Z/angus-mcbride-british-and-german-soldiers-hold-a-christmas-truce-during-the-great-war.jpg
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