Peace, Chocolate and Music
The second candle of the Advent wreath, “The Peace Candle”, is lit this Sunday
In December of 1914, the Mayor of York and the Sherriff, Oscar Rowntree sent tins of chocolate to all of the men from York who were in the trenches during that first winter of World War I.
Rowntree was a member of the Rowntree family who had founded a cocoa and confectionary company in 1862 and the tin carried a “Happy Christmas” message on the lid.
That same year, from December 24-26, the famous “Christmas Truce” took place in several different locations along the Front, with German and Allied soldiers laying down their arms to celebrate Christmas together.
There are many different accounts of what happened, but most agree that the truce began with the singing of carols, a lifting of voices that halted fighting, if only for a few days.
First the Germans would sing one of their carols and then we would sing one of ours, until when we started up ‘O Come, All Ye Faithful’ the Germans immediately joined in singing the same hymn to the Latin words ‘Adeste Fideles.’ And I thought, well, this is really a most extraordinary thing – two nations both singing the same carol in the middle of a war.
— Graham Williams of the Fifth London Rifle Brigade
Gifts of food, chocolate and cigarettes were exchanged and both sides took the opportunity to bury their dead on the battlefield.
There will always be war, at least in my lifetime, but it’s comforting to know there will also always be music.
You can read more about the “Christmas Truce” from TIME : HERE and from the BBC: HERE.
A Song to Begin the Week
One of my favorite modern Christmas songs is “Grown Up Christmas List” by David Foster and Linda Thompson. The marvelous award-winning actor and singer
of here on Substack, does such a gorgeous and touching version on one of her Christmas albums, Merry and Bright, that I wanted to share it with you, it’s a perfect song to start a week with the theme of peace. You can find more of Liz’s music here at http://lizcallaway.com and a new holiday song in her latest post at .Thank you, Liz! ✨
Day Eight of “The Little Town” Advent Calendar
The second window of Arts and Crafts (Kunst Gewerbe) ✨
See you tomorrow. 🕊️
Jolene
How beautiful to think that war can be paused by the power of music and in the spirit of holidays (makes me dream that maybe if we sing more, we could stop all wars for good) 💝
I love Liz Callaway! I haven’t heard that song in years. I think I know it from when I worked in a performing arts school teaching singing… this was one of the Christmas songs you could sing for the holiday recital