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Friday, December 25, 2009
christmas is the time when most drink driving occurs.
christmas is the time when most maritial infidelity happens.
christmas is the time when prostitution thrives most.
christmas is the time when houses are burgled the most.
christmas is the time of most car break-ins.
christmas is the time when drunken fighting takes place the most.
christmas is a time when domestic violence peaks.
been thinking a lot about christmas :X all these traditions and stuff. presents. gift giving. apparently supposed to commemorate the magi giving the gifts to the baby Jesus. but those gifts weren't exchanged among themselves- they were all given to Jesus. and here we are giving each other prezzies :X i don't know. the origins of christmas. pagan roman gods? more reading+thinking is needed.
95 years ago, at about this time of the year, World War I was in bloom between the germans and the allied forces. abruptly, on christmas eve, the 24th, germans at a trench in belgium started decorating the trees and began singing christmas carols. soon enough the british troops in the opposite trench responded by singing english carols. after that each side started shouting christmas greetings to each other. soon enough soldiers from both sides met up in No Man's Land- the space between the two trenches- and exchanged gifts such as cigarettes, jam and whiskey. the artillery went silent that night. proper burials for dead soldiers were given as both sides mourned the dead.
at another trench, welch soldiers and german soldiers both climbed over each others' trenches and met each other at No Man's Land- someone produced a football from somewhere, and both sides had a friendly, free-for-all game that lasted about half an hour. no score was kept.
when the christmas bells sounded near the french and germans, both sides spontaneously made peace and visited each other through disused trench tunnels and exchanged small gifts like wine and ham. some of them got along so well they even remained good friends after the war.
a 10-page letter written by a british soldier at that time begins as follows:
This will be the most memorable Christmas I've ever spent or likely to spend: since about tea time yesterday I don't think theres been a shot fired on either side up to now. Last night turned a very clear frost moonlight night, so soon after dusk we had some decent fires going and had a few carols and songs. The Germans commenced by placing lights all along the edge of their trenches and coming over to us—wishing us a Happy Christmas etc.
They also gave us a few songs etc. so we had quite a social party. Several of them can speak English very well so we had a few conversations. Some of our chaps went to over to their lines. I think they've all come back bar one from 'E' Co. They no doubt kept him as a souvenir. In spite of our fires etc. it was terribly cold and a job to sleep between look out duties, which are two hours in every six.
First thing this morning it was very foggy. So we stood to arms a little longer than usual. A few of us that were lucky could go to Holy Communion early this morning. It was celebrated in a ruined farm about 500 yds behind us. I unfortunately couldn't go. There must be something in the spirit of Christmas as to day we are all on top of our trenches running about. Whereas other days we have to keep our heads well down. We had breakfast about 8.0 which went down alright especially some cocoa we made. We also had some of the post this morning.
I had a parcel from B. G's Lace Dept containing a sweater, smokes, under clothes etc. We also had a card from the Queen, which I am sending back to you to look after please. After breakfast we had a game of football at the back of our trenches! We've had a few Germans over to see us this morning. They also sent a party over to bury a sniper we shot in the week. He was about a 100 yds from our trench. A few of our fellows went out and helped to bury him.
About 10.30 we had a short church parade the morning service etc. held in the trench. How we did sing. 'O come all ye faithful. And While shepherds watched their flocks by night' were the hymns we had. At present we are cooking our Christmas Dinner! so will finish this letter later.
Dinner is over! and well we enjoyed it. Our dinner party started off with fried bacon and dip-bread: followed by hot Xmas Pudding. I had a mascot in my piece. Next item on the menu was muscatels and almonds, oranges, bananas, chocolate etc followed by cocoa and smokes. You can guess we thought of the dinners at home. Just before dinner I had the pleasure of shaking hands with several Germans: a party of them came 1/2 way over to us so several of us went out to them. I exchanged one of my balaclavas for a hat. I've also got a button off one of their tunics. We also exchanged smokes etc. and had a decent chat. They say they won't fire tomorrow if we don't so I suppose we shall get a bit of a holiday—perhaps. After exchanging autographs and them wishing us a Happy New Year we departed and came back and had our dinner.
We can hardly believe that we've been firing at them for the last week or two—it all seems so strange. At present its freezing hard and everything is covered with ice…
the letter ends off with:
There are plenty of huge shell holes in front of our trenches, also pieces of shrapnel to be found. I never expected to shake hands with Germans between the firing lines on Christmas Day and I don't suppose you thought of us doing so. So after a fashion we've enjoyed? our Christmas. Hoping you spend a happy time also George Boy as well. How we thought of England during the day. Kind regards to all the neighbours. With much love from Boy.
google "christmas truce" to find out more. above info's from wiki. might have gotten some of it wrong- skimmed through quite fast since i need to sleep soon.
the next day after this happened, unhappy commanders on both sides commanded their men to attack once more- some were hesitant, but in the end the war went on as before, with soldiers being forced to shoot the men they had made friends with the day before.
somehow, i think that day when both german and allied forces lay down arms for a day of peace- there was some real christmas spirit in that. now, it's just totally different.
"you think too much." someone told me that, once. but hey, i take it as a compliment :) you can never think too much. i think.
merry christmas. remember Jesus.
9:49 AM
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