Hello everyone and welcome back to Britain under the Microscope.
Today, I have a very special tale for you. As we are now approaching Christmas, some of you might have heard the expression -The Christmas Spirit. It means to be kind, charitable, forgiving and generous to all people. This can be summed up in the traditional Christmas saying: Peace On Earth And Good Will To All Man.
In one of our previous episodes, we talked about the First World War from 1914 to 1918. It was the Christmas of 1914 during which one of the most famous Christmas stories took place.
It was only a few months after the start of war. British and German soldiers were facing each other, fighting against each other in the trenches, and watching their friends being killed. Then on Christmas eve, something magical happened. As one soldier remembers:

It was Christmas eve, there was white beautiful moonlight, frost on the ground, almost white everywhere. And round about, I should think, 7 or 8 in evening, we heard this singing and lots of commotion and we saw some lights. I don't know what they were, some lights and later we heard them singing silent light (Stille Nacht). I shall never forget it. It's one of the highlights of my life absolutely to see them, and I thought what a beautiful tune. I thought well a very different Christmas this is going to be from any I've spent up till now, feeling pretty miserable all together. Then all of a sudden, lights appeared along the German trench. I thought that's a funny thing and then the German started singing-Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht. I woke up, well, all the other sentries did the same thing . We all woke up the other people to come along see this, what on earth's going on. They finish their carol, we applauded them, then we thought we must retaliate in some way, so we replied with "The First Noel". When we finish that they all began clapping, then they struck up their other favorite carol of theirs: Oh Tannenbaum. And so we went on, first the Germans singing one of their carols, then we sing another of ours. Then we started up … "O Come All Ye Faithful" …
And Germans immediately joined in singing the same thing to the Latin words of "Adeste Fideles". Well, I thought this was rather extraordinary thing really.
To think of the two nations both singing the same carol in the middle of a war. On Christmas day, in many areas of the frontline in France and Belgium, the soldier held the truce of the day. British and German soldiers got out their trenches and talked to each other, they showed photographs of their loved ones. Many Germans who lived in Britain before the war talked about their lives before. Many gave each other gifts and shared their food. Some even played football with each other. But during the ceasefire many took the time to give their dead comrades a proper burial, British and German troops came together to help bury their dead friends and remember them. The generals were very angry that their soldiers stopped fighting, and the truce soon came to an end. As the war continued, this Christmas ceasefire never happened again. But it was never forgotten. People still remembered this moment of peace during the terrible war, and this is what Christmas truly means. Peace On Earth And Good Will To All Men. And for all of us at Lulu's happy hour, we wish you all a very Merry Christmas.

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