16 Dec 2014
The Christmas Truce – “You No Shoot, We No Shoot”
Visit Flanders

The Christmas Truce, a unique exchange of seasonal friendship during the Christmas of 1914, is something that is just as meaningful one hundred years later.

The Christmas season saw heavy fighting along the Western front in Flanders. Soldiers from both sides were living in trenches separated by the frozen mud of No Man's Land. They received Christmas gifts and messages from home and on Christmas Eve 1914, German soldiers lit candles on the small Christmas trees they had received.

Everybody had expected the war to be over by Christmas, soldiers felt it wouldn't be too much longer and the Christmas spirit evoked a feeling of hope. At the same time, bad weather had made warfare impossible, and both armies became deadlocked in the trenches. When the German soldiers put their lit Christmas trees on the ledges of their trenches and started singing, the British troops joined in and soldiers began to look across at the other side. Gradually soldiers held up signs of peace and warily climbed out of the trenches and exchanged presents and greetings and sang carols. Near Mesen, some soldiers started playing football together, a show of camaraderie between enemies which never took place again.

To mark this poignant symbol of peace during the Great War, VISITFLANDERS and various organisations in Belgium will be commemorating its centenary in both the UK and Flanders this year in a number of ways: 

In Flanders, the main theme of Football dominates the area around Mesen which bore witness to the Christmas Truce. It is here, on the 6th December, that a new Christmas Truce Monument was unveiled, the culmination of the work of Mildenhall College of Technology in Suffolk and the Gymnasium Theodorianum in Paderborn, Germany over a number of years of joint trips to the Peace Hostel, Mesen.

  • 17 December: UEFA  official ceremony at the Cathedral in Ypres

  • 19 December:  Mesen, Flanders –Football Supporters centenary commemoration Football match.  An international football (7 by 7) tournament will take place on a football pitch in Mesen right next to the site of the historic Christmas Truce which has been recently been restored. In coming years, the pitch will host matches between teams of young players engaging in a Peace Education. The players, fans from eight different football associations will wear their official national and the coach of each the team will be an ambassador. After the match, the respective teams will take part in the ceremony of the Last Post at the Menin Gate in Ypres. The next day, teams will take part in an official visit of the battlefield area with excursions to the sites of other Truce events.

  • 20 December: Mesen Football pitch – Concert by John Cale ( formerly of The Velvet Underground)

  • 24 December : Peace Bell ringing across the World  at Mesen

  • 25 December: Peace Match played on the Flanders Peace Field at Mesen between a local and Scottish team.

  • In London from 15th December, three street artists from the UK and Germany will create and design a fitting “Street Art” tribute to depict the Flanders Christmas Truce in a pictorial graffiti format. The co-creation will begin for the public to view from 15 - 26th December at the Shoreditch Art Wall in London's Great Eastern Road. The artists*, will come together to reflect on the moment and create a unique design which captures the essence of the moment.

-Ends-

Notes:

  1. The street artists are:

UK artists:

German artist:

For more information contact:

Anita Rampall anita@visitflanders.co.uk 0207 307 7741

Karen Roebuck karen@visitflanders.co.uk 0207 307 7722

 

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