One of the strangest phenomenon’s to occur during wartime is the Holiday Cease-Fire. Let us put aside the insanity of twenty somethings and younger being instructed and agreeing to exterminate each other for a moment. In the standard twenty four-hour agreement no hostile actions are to be taken. The Christmas Truce of 1914 is an amazing and bizarre example of such a cease-fire.
As per the History Channel, https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-i/christmas-truce-of-1914, on Christmas Eve German and British troops began singing Christmas Carols to each other across No-Man’s Land. On Christmas morning German soldiers left their fortifications and walked towards the Allies calling out “Merry Christmas”. What followed was pretty amazing considering that the two sides had been engaged in trying to kill each other just hours before. Gifts were exchanged, including cigarettes and foodstuffs, and both sides sang songs together. They even played a game of soccer. The truce even allowed time for the retrieval of the bodies of the dead.
The horrors of World War I are well documented. The technology for killing had improved substantially with airplanes for bombing, artillery, machine guns, and the dreadful use of poison gas. Dug trenches, occupied by soldiers, were as deep as 30 feet, and also contained water and sewage, lice, and rats. Soldiers were dug in and subjected to bombing and gas while rarely gaining or losing ground for months at a time. If there is a definition for misery this is it especially when you add being wet, cold, and hungry. There were also outbreaks of influenza priming the way to the deadly pandemic of 1918. Although the war had ended on November 11, 1918, Spanish Influenza occurred across the world killing between 50 and 100 million people in 1918 and 1919. Many believe the War had a major role in the pandemic. In essence the “war” is not over once fighting stops. There are long-term consequences.
For a moment consider yourself as an observer from another world or plane of reality who just stopped in for a while to research mass murder, in this case warfare in 1914, specifically Christmas cease-fires. What would you think? What conclusions would you draw? It might seem odd that for one day attempts to kill each other ceased but for the other 364 days killing remained the main goal. Killing our way to peace? What an odd concept. You might ask yourself why not a two day cease-fire? How about other holidays? How about odd or even day cease-fires as a respite from killing? Hell, what not take the whole Summer off? But the two most fascinating parts of this are first, that after a day of camaraderie jettisoning one’s humanity and going back to bombing and bayoneting each other? How is this possible? Why would anyone return to participate in such brutality? Second, this is Christmas; we celebrate the birth of Christ and his life. On both sides of the trenches there were many who called themselves Christians. So how is the legacy and teachings of Christ celebrated by murdering each other? His main focus was certainly not causing murder and despair. It was love, compassion, kindness, and forgiveness. What happened? How could we get so far off the tracks? So our observer, horrified by what he/she saw, suggests a Christmas exercise. Consider disarming yourselves, declaring a cease-fire, and perhaps assisting others in disarming. You may not be able to do it every day but start with once a week and then move to odd and even days. And you may want to go reacquaint yourself with the New Testament. You can start with the Beatitudes. I like to emphasize the “peacemakers”. We have the texts, scriptures and ethics to create a more peaceful world. We just need the sustained will and support of enough people to succeed.