A Carol From Flanders -- Christmas Poem

 

A Carol from Flanders
by Frederick J. Niven

In Flanders on the Christmas morn
The trenched foemen lay,
The German and the Briton born,
And it was Christmas Day.

The red sun rose on fields accurst,
The gray fog fled away;
But neither cared to fire the first,
For it was Christmas Day!

They called from each to each across
The hideous disarray,
For terrible has been their loss:
"Oh, this is Christmas Day!"

Their rifles all they set aside,
One impulse to obey;
'Twas just the men on either side,
Just men--and Christmas Day.

They dug the graves for all their dead
And over them did pray:
And Englishmen and Germans said:
"How strange a Christmas Day!"

Between the trenches then they met,
Shook hands, and e'en did play
At games on which their hearts were set
On happy Christmas Day.

Not all the emperors and kings,
Financiers and they
Who rule us could prevent these things --
For it was Christmas Day.

Oh ye who read this truthful rime
From Flanders, kneel and say:
God speed the time when every day
Shall be as Christmas Day.

Frederick John Niven (March 31, 1878 - January 30, 1944) was a Canadian novelist of Scottish heritage. A prolific author, he produced over thirty works of fiction, an autobiography, poetry, essays, and pieces of journalism.

The Christmas True reported by The Daily Mirror (London, U.K.) on Friday, January 8, 1915 featuring a
photograph of British and German soldiers standing together between the trenches on the
Western Front near Ypres, Belgium.

On Christmas Eve, Thursday, December 24, 1914, along the four-hundred-mile Western Front of World War I (1914-1918), a famous ceasefire took place, as enemy soldiers spontaneously emerged from their trenches and laid their weapons aside to celebrate the birth of Christ together in the No-Man's-Land between the trenches.

They sang carols, exchanged gifts (jams and candies, cigarettes, newspapers), kicked around a soccer balls, and shared photos of loved ones. They also buried each other’s dead and prayed together communally over the bodies, led by chaplains reciting the Lord's Prayer in English and German. Some even exchanged home addresses and promised to visit after the war.

Its estimated that as many as 100,000 British, French, Belgian, and German men took part in what history refers to as the Christmas Truce of 1914 (der Weihnachtsfrieden in German). In most places it lasted from Christmas Eve (Thursday, December 24th) through the end of Boxing Day (Saturday, December 26).

The Christmas Truce of 1914 remains one of the most remarkable stories of both war and the brotherhood of mankind. 

Never Forget!