AN UNUSUAL CHRISTMAS IN AN UNUSUAL WAR

Christmas during first world war of 1914

It was 1914, the First World War had started 5 months earlier. The Germans on one side were threatening to break through, while the British with the allies on the other side were fighting hard to stop them. Christmas was approaching. It was hard for the soldiers to recollect all the wonderful times they enjoyed each year with their families. Worse still, they were engaged in war in which they could lose their lives at any moment. They were caught in the paradox of Christmas and chaos, life and death. Each day there were casualties on both sides. The general mood in the camps was one of apprehension. And as night approached, one could only hear the sudden boots in the slushy mud or the whisper of an officer or the moan of the cold wind signaling that Christmas was drawing near.

Soldiers’ Christmas from both sides

December advanced and days passed quickly. It was hardly the time or place to feel grateful for it. But at last, the soldiers’ Christmas even came. And when the dusk started to turn dark, memories kept soldiers in a trance of saddened silence. While thinking about their homes back in England, still looking and dreaming, their eyes caught a flare in the darkness. Light after light sprang up along with German front. And all down the English trenches, there came a unique greeting that was strange in a war. “English soldier, English soldier, a merry Christmas, a merry Christmas.”

Invitation from German soldiers

Following the salutation, came an invitation from those hard voices. “Come out English soldiers, come out here to us,” and the hymn “Oh Holy Night” was sung while the night watch must have lifted their eyes to heavens even as the plaintive call was given. Whatever the spirit of Christmas had been before that hour it was now above all the spirit of hope of peace.

The night was made easier by songs from German trenches while British responded with their own Christmas carols. And as the Christmas day dawned over the muddy fields, men who had shot at each other joined in a solemn service for their fallen brothers as the officers led the way. Side by side, they buried their dead and Psalm 23 was read while every head lay bare. Yes it was sight one would never see in a war.

Showing Christian love during war

Photographs, gifts, scarfs, puddings, post cards, prayers, confessions, games were exchanged. All through the day, no shot was fired. As the Christmas of 1914 drew to a close, soldiers who had sung together, played together and prayed together returned to their trenches. They must have felt reluctant to let the common ground between them become no man’s land once again.

But even as the darkness fell around them, a lone voice floated across the few yards of earth on which they had stood together. It was the grand carol “silent night”. In a true spirit of Christmas, one voice and then another and then another joined in. Soon the whole world seemed to be singing and for a brief moment, the sound of peace in that carol was a sound every soul knew by heart. The war went on later but that was the way it was one Christmas just a hundred years ago. And that is the way it will be as we embrace the message of that silent holy night recollecting that grand event in history.