The story behind the 1914 Christmas Day Truce
On December 7, 1914, Pope Benedict XV suggested a temporary hiatus of the war for the celebration of Christmas, according to History.com. The warring countries refused to create any official cease-fire, but on Christmas, soldiers took matters into their own hands.
An unofficial truce
The sounds of explosions faded in a number of places along the Western Front during World War I in favor of holiday celebrations. During an unofficial ceasefire, soldiers on both sides of the conflict emerged from the trenches, sharing gestures of goodwill.
Starting on Christmas Eve, many German and British troops sang Christmas carols to each other across the lines. Some two-thirds of troops—about 100,000 people—are believed to have participated in the celebrations.
Christmas Day
Just how widespread the truce was is hard to say, but at the first light of dawn, some German soldiers emerged from their trenches and approached the Allied lines across no-man’s-land, calling out “Merry Christmas” in their enemies’ native tongues.
At first, the Allied soldiers thought it was a trick, but seeing the Germans unarmed they climbed out of their trenches and shook hands with the enemy soldiers. The men sang and exchanged presents of cigarettes and plum puddings. Some Germans lit Christmas trees around their trenches, and there was even a documented case of soldiers from opposing sides playing soccer.
The sober Wall Street Journal observed: “What appears from the winter fog and misery is a Christmas story, a fine Christmas story that is, in truth, the most faded and tattered of adjectives: inspiring.”
Some soldiers used this short-lived ceasefire for a more somber task: the retrieval of the bodies of fellow combatants who had fallen within the no-man’s land between the lines.
History in the making
The so-called Christmas Truce of 1914 came only five months after the outbreak of war in Europe and was one of the last examples of the outdated notion of chivalry between enemies in warfare, but it served as heartening proof, however brief, that peace was possible and that even a World War couldn’t destroy the Christmas spirit.
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