by Calin Marginean
On the 24-th of December I do not celebrate a god, a saviour, a tradition or a gift, I celebrate humanity itself for what it is but has forgotten.
As some of you might already know, I am an atheist who is not afraid to be areligious in public. I criticise religion a lot for there is much to criticise and do not celebrate many religious holidays, except for a few. One of these exceptions is the 25-th of December, a day that is celebrated by followers of religions such as Mithraism, the cult of Sol Invictus, Judaism (depends on the year), Christianity and more recently Consumerism. At this time when people carry on with their traditions, respecting religious dogmas, buying and sometimes overspending, decorating everything, remembering various figures I stand listening to one carol: “Silent Night”. The holiday I keep is half-forgotten, being remembered once a year for a few moments, the figures that are part of it were people like you and me once, but their memory is still alive in the hearts of a few and happiness is mixed with sadness and melancholia for this story is tragic in its happiness. Since 2013, every year on the 25-th of December I celebrate the Christmas Truce of 1914, a moment where humanity remembered what it truly is.
At the beginning of the 20-th century the whole of the world went to war. The Great War to end all wars they called it. Under the guise of national interest, states went to war mobilising the masses with nationalistic hatred and imperialism to do the bloody work. They said the pacifist lefties were loony traitors, they said it would be brief and glorious; they said it would be over by Christmas. And thus people like you and me were lied to and thrown into a conflict that was not their own, left to suffer in the factories or to slowly bleed blood and sanity in the trenches.
World War One or The Great War to End all Wars as it was known lasted from 1914 to 1918 and left over 17 million people dead 20 million wounded by blade, bullet and gas. Many of those were civilians
Treaties were broken, shots were fired, millions died in agony and Christmas Eve came but the guns were not silent. By nightfall, homesick soldiers, young people like you and me, tried to celebrate Christmas without their loved ones and many of their friends, stuck in a killing-field. Thus, carols began to be sung and soon enough on some sections of the Western Front both Germans and British were singing the same carols but in different languages. For a while they forgot the hell they were in. They laughed, they sang, they drank and went to sleep.
British and German soldiers celebrating Christmas together in 1914. Don’t try to guess their nationality by the helmets and hats because some exchanged them during the truce.
The next day, an unexpected thing happened: a few German soldiers, still drunk front the night before left their trenches and began to simply stroll in No-Man’s land towards the soldiers of the Entente. The British, seeing that these “Krauts” were not armed did not shoot but were bewildered and some of the “Tommies” even laid down their arms and left their trenches. Bit by bit, every soldier and officer went to No-Man’s land and in its middle the two sides met. Awkward and tense must have been the first encounter between people who were told to hate each other, but soon they realised that they all were the same: young homesick men stuck in a futile war.
Soldiers playing football in No Man’s Land. Christmas 1914
Thus, they became friends, they exchanged helmets, drank together, took pictures and even played football. In the middle of No Man’s Land, Christmas trees were put up and decorated. They became friends and stayed as such, for even after the holidays were over, even as orders came to fight, they refused, they did not want to kill a friend and a fellow human being.
I celebrate this event every year, and I smile but am also saddened by it for one simple reason: these soldiers who said NO to the futile Great War to End all Wars remembered a simple truth that escapes many of us to this day.
The philosopher Rousseau once said “Man is born good, it is society that corrupts him”. This statement is partially true, for all humans are born and stay good deep down no matter what with evil having three sources:
1: Want: From the thief, to the bandit, the insurgent and smuggler, bad deeds are motivated by want or scarcity. Hunger, thirst, poverty, insecurity, cold, inequality and jealousy, these are the banners under which people rally throwing away morality for the promise that maybe one day, they or their loved ones shall have enough. And the violence or crime, the hard shell is seen. Not what causes it, nor the pain, or the sadness within.
2: Lies: Everybody lies, even I no matter how hard I try, tell lies from time to time. But this is the tragedy, for lies only bring ruin on this world: people hide, pretend that they are what they are not, manipulate others out of fear or greed, hide truth that although painful sets one free and most of all makes us become used to hearing lies rather than truth, encouraging cynicism and suspicion. We become spiders, weaving cobwebs in the dark and inflicting invisible wounds that are far more horrific than the visible ones that truth gives. And we become suspicious cynics, and we see everyone as a spider, wanting to ensnare us, forgetting that in fact they are human being, who deep down, is like us: good.
3: Ignorance: From the fanaticism it has promoted, to the superstitions it has brought and progress it has crushed, ignorance has ravaged our world. But the worst thing it brings on a daily basis is dehumanisation. As human beings we have something is us. A conscience, a moral compass, which makes us seek good and avoid evil. The definitions of good and evil might be blurred and up to interpretations but we act this way and have a repulsion in harming another human being. It is one of our defining features. But when ignorance makes us forget that what is standing in front of us is not a monster, is not a machine, or an animal but a human being, then we become capable of horrific acts. The moment we brand an individual as evil or inferior we strip them of their humanity; we turn a human into a practice dummy or a scapegoat for our hatred.
German and British soldiers celebrating Christmas together with whiskey and schnaps. Similar truces were held in the following years as well, despite increasing pressure from above to keep fighting. In the years of bloodshed and cruelty, kindness and solidarity, our humane side, still prevailed at times
And this is the truth that alcohol brought to the minds of some soldiers in 1914: every person you’ll meet or hear about, every human that will ever exist deep down is good but might be scared, hungry, hurt or searching but not being able to find truth and knowledge.
So join me and celebrate. Sing “Silent Night” with me, keep this truth in your minds and hearts and give humanity some love.
Calin George Marginean, Class of 2017, majoring in Political Science and Sociology, from Bucharest, Romania.
