December 7th and Christmas

Today is December 7, “a date which will live in infamy”, and was the day that Japan attacked Pearl Harbor pulling the U.S. into a World War.

27 years earlier on December 7, 1914, Pope Benedict XV suggested a temporary hiatus of the war for the celebration of Christmas. The warring countries refused to create any official cease-fire, but on Christmas the soldiers in the trenches declared their own unofficial truce.

Starting on Christmas Eve, many German and British troops sang Christmas carols to each other across the lines, and at certain points the Allied soldiers even heard brass bands joining the Germans in their joyous singing.

At the first light of dawn on Christmas Day, 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 feared it was a trick, but seeing the Germans unarmed they climbed out of their trenches and shook hands with the enemy soldiers. The men exchanged presents of cigarettes and plum puddings and sang carols and songs. There was even a documented case of soldiers from opposing sides playing a good-natured game of soccer.

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.

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Truce of 1914 came only five months after the outbreak of war in Europe and was one of the last examples of the outdated notion of chivalry between enemies in warfare. It was never repeated. Future attempts at holiday ceasefires were quashed by officers’ threats of disciplinary action but it served as heartening proof, however brief, that beneath the brutal clash of guns, the soldiers’ essential humanity endured.

During World War I, the soldiers on the Western Front did not expect to celebrate on the battlefield, but even a world war could not destroy the Christmas spirit.

I hope we will never forget this day as Pearl Harbor day. Many died in a sneak attack from an Imperialist country who thought they could conquer anything. But also know that years before, men on both sides of a World War put down their guns and celebrated the birth of Christ.

I am a proponent of self-defense but I try to not be a “man of blood”. I hope that we can always remember the true Spirit of Christmas and know that the gospel of Jesus Christ will win in the end.

Merry Christmas to you and to your family. May you have a great holiday and a safe, wonderful New Year!

Semper Paratus
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