In the year 1914 AD, hundreds of thousands of soldiers - British, French, Germans - were fighting against each other along a 600km long front in what is called the first World War. More than 750.000 people had already died in this useless war, torn apart by grenades, shot by machine gun fire. I think none of us can imagine what it was like.
But then, something noone expected happened. Take Fleurbaix, for example, a little village near Armentières. The lights the british soldiers saw on Christmas eve weren´t muzzle flashes, but christmas trees put up by the germans. Not only that, but they were moving towards them! Soon they could hear the germans shouting "We not shoot, you not shoot!". Hesitantly, the first british soldiers were walking towards the germans. Soon, enemies were shaking hands, sharing a smoke and showing each other pictures of their families. It was not a singular case. In many places along the front, soldiers stopped shooting at each other, sang christmas songs and played football (also called soccer in less civilized parts of the world ;P) against each other. It is not recorded which side won more matches, and i guess noone really cared.

I´m not religious and thus not much of a Christmas fan, but this time of the year always makes me think of what happened 90 years ago in the middle of a really ugly war. Indeed, it is good to see that man can, at least occasionally, overcome fear and hate.

A Merry Christmas to you all!