Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto

From Rev. Eva

December 28, 2007
Rev. Eva Českava

The 1914 Christmas Truce among the soldiers on either side of No Man’s Land in France during World War I has become the stuff of legend, folk tale and song.

One account by the last British survivor of the Christmas miracle told his story: of the eerie sound of silence Christmas morning, of strains of “Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht” mixed with “Silent Night,” of the hand-written boards held up from the German trenches stating “We not shoot, you not shoot,” of gifts of weak French beer and Christmas pudding between these enemies.

Other stories relate how small fir trees decked with candles — tannenbaum — were positioned above the German trenches that clear, frosty night of Christmas Eve; how first two men, then six, then whole platoons climbed out of the trenches to exchange holiday greetings; the impromptu soccer games in No Man’s Land.

And it wasn’t only the enlisted men participating. Their commanding officers on both sides, also tired of the slimy mud-filled trenches, recognized the need for a few hours of respite. The lull in the fighting gave each side the opportunity to retrieve and bury their fallen comrades, in a few cases. Along some stretches of the 27 miles of the Western Front, the cease-fire lasted into January.

This Great War, predicted (as many wars) to be over within a few months, marked the end, some have written, of “military chivalry.” Uses of an efficient machine gun and clouds of poisonous gas meant to blind and incapacitate the enemy had never been used on such a scale. The world had entered the modern age with its many advances, including more effective and lethal ways of killing. Though the conflict lasted many years beyond that Christmas, this tiny truce in a great war has never been forgotten.

This season of greetings of peace and love, celebrating the birth of a man many sing of as the Prince of Peace, continues to give us hope that wars will cease, if even for a few hours. Hope that these “universal soldiers” will refuse to kill their fellow humans, that “Peace on the Earth, goodwill to all” will become a reality in our lifetime. May it begin with me.