Silent Night – a miracle in the making

You are standing up to your knees in the slime of a waterlogged trench.  It is the evening of 24 December 1914 and you are on the dreaded Western Front.

Stooped over, you wade across to the firing step and take over the watch.  Having exchanged pleasantries, your bleary-eyed and mud-spattered colleague shuffles off towards his dug out.  Despite the horrors and the hardships, your morale is high and you believe that in the New Year the nation's army march towards a glorious victory.

But for now you stamp your feet in a vain attempt to keep warm.  All is quiet when jovial voices call out from both friendly and enemy trenches.  Then the men from both sides start singing carols and songs.  Next come requests not to fire, and soon the unthinkable happens: you start to see the shadowy shapes of soldiers gathering together in no-man's land laughing, joking and sharing gifts.

Many have exchanged cigarettes, the lit ends of which burn brightly in the inky darkness.  Plucking up your courage, you haul yourself up and out of the trench and walk towards the foe...

The meeting of enemies as friends in no-man's land was experienced by hundreds, if not thousands, of men on the Western Front during Christmas 1914.  Today, 90 years after it occurred, the event is seen as a shining episode of sanity from among the bloody chapters of World War One - a spontaneous effort by the lower ranks to create a peace that could have blossomed were it not for the interference of generals and politicians.

 In a article about the Christmas Truce World War 1: The Christmas Truce of 1914  Priya Karan reported that: The ceasefire of the Christmas Truce also allowed for a few friendly games of soccer in No Man’s Land. On January 1st, 1915, the London Times published a letter from a Major in the Medical Corps reporting that in his sector the British played a game of football against the Germans opposite and were defeated 3-2. Kurt Zehmisch of the 134th Saxons recorded in his diary: “The English brought a soccer ball from the 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 friends for a time.”

In another recent article 23^rd of December in the Huffington Post by Steven and  Michael Meloan called Contagious Transcendence-The Christmas Truce of 1914  said:

 According to letters from soldiers, some German infantrymen had received tiny tennenbaum trees, and began decorating them with candles and placing them on the parapet amid the barbed wire. The British were captivated by the twinkling lights appearing along the trenches. Then they heard faint singing, Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht. The melody was unmistakable. Some of the Brits began to sing along in English. Then Christmas greetings were shouted back and forth.

Finally, a few brave soldiers arose from the trenches with offerings of food and tobacco. Before long, no man's land was filled with soldiers greeting one another, exchanging food, trading buttons from their uniforms, and showing pictures of loved ones. Sometimes a stuffed sandbag served as a soccer ball, and impromptu games began with jackets marking the goals. Festivities and camaraderie lasted all through Christmas day. Then, at sundown, silence again.

Some might laugh at the baby in the stable and the Christmas story but if He had been born just for the Christmas truce in 1914 and saved several thousand men's deaths over that surreal time of peace in the midst of war, it would still have been worth it. For a few days the guns were quieted and the angel of death had nothing to do.

The carol Silent Night certainly has an amazing history. From an obscure Austrian Christmas service in 1816 to the trenches of Flanders in 1914 to the present day. The story behind the carol is so amazing that a documentary about the song and the impact of the song called “Silent Night- a simple melody” has now been produced.

If you can get up on Christmas morning on the 25^th of December 2010 at 6.30 am on Channel 7 or Prime, you can watch the whole story, including the part about World War I, before you open your presents with your children. Although don’t delay the opening of the presents too long as that could create another war and stopping that war would be a miracle in the making in more ways than one.