May the spirit of love be with you and all your loved ones. Here's a true story I wanted to share today:
It was Christmas Eve, 1914. After four months of fighting, more than a million men had perished in bloody conflict. The bodies of dead soldiers were scattered between the trenches of Europe, frozen in the snow. Belgian, German, French, British and Canadian troops were dug-in so close that they could easily exchange shouts.
Lt. Kurt Zehmisch, a German soldier who had been a schoolteacher in Leipzig, blew a two-fingered whistle toward the British trenches. To the delight of Zehmisch’s Saxon regiment, the Brits whistled back. Some of the Germans who had worked in England before the war shouted greetings across the battlefield in English.
On the Allied side, the Brits watched in amazement as candle-lit Christmas trees began to appear atop German trenches. The glowing trees soon appeared along the length of the German front.
Henry Williamson, a young soldier with the London Regiment wrote in his diary: “From the German parapet, a rich baritone voice had begun to sing a song I remembered my German nurse singing to me.... The grave and tender voice rose out of the frozen mist. It was all so strange... like being in another world — to which one had come through a nightmare.”
... “They finished their carol and we thought that we ought to retaliate,” another British soldier wrote, “So we sang The First Noël and when we finished, they all began clapping. And they struck up O Tannebaum and on it went... until we started up O Come All Ye Faithful [and] the Germans immediately joined in .... this was really a most extraordinary thing — two nations both singing the same carol in the middle of a war.”
Continue reading the remarkable story of The Christmas Truce.
Evelyn,
Several of us over at GapingVoid commenting that we hope you're OK given your proximity to the massive tragedy taking place in that part of the world.
Hoping to hear from you soon.
Posted by: Tom Guarriello | Dec 26, 2004 at 10:41 PM
Tsunami in Sri Lanka
The Autism Awareness Campaign Sri Lanka have launched a new blogspot with information on the tsunami disaster in Sri Lanka:
http://autismsrilanka.blogspot.com
We are working in partnership with the respected Rotary Club Colombo Regency who are reaching out to victims in the disaster areas of the east and the south of Sri Lanka
Posted by: Autism Awareness Campaign Sri Lanka | Jan 06, 2005 at 12:49 PM
Nimal Mendis composes Tsunami Song for tsunami victims in Sri Lanka
Nimal Mendis is one of Sri Lanka's outstanding singer/songwriters. He is a composer with dual nationality of Sri Lanka and Britian.
At present Nimal Mendis is living in France. He had 22 songs recorded in Britain in the sixties and appeared on the popular TV show “Top of the Pops " in 1968 with my own song " Feel like a Clown ". It was with his singing partner Sandra Edema as Ranee and Raj. It was a guest appearance.
One of his songs " Master Sir " has been a popular song in Sri Lanka for many years. He also wrote " Ganga Addara " for the late Vijaya Kumaratunge, the Sri Lankan President's husband who was assasinated in 1988 . He has written these and many other popular film songs for our country’s foremost filmmakers Lester and Sumitra Pieris 's . The two songs mentioned are still played often in Sri Lanka.
Following the destruction and horror of the Tsumani that struck Sri Lanka Nimal Mendis composed a new song. It is based on the unprecedented sadness that the entire island of Sri Lanka is experiencing. The song will be translated into Sinhala and also to Tamil.
Nimal Mendis needs sponsorship for a recording of this song by an organization who could do it like the Band Aid effort by British artistes that collected a huge sum of money for charity. He does not want anything for the song. Money collected should be sent to the President’s fund directly.( copied below )
To conatct Nimal Mendis:
Tel: ( 0033 ) 5 45 65 17 66 - [email protected]
His son ( Paulmarie Mendis ) contact details: in London. Tel: ( 0044 ) 207 272 5748 - [email protected]
In Sri Lanka - Varadatta Aravinda -
mobile: Tel: ( 00941 ) (0) 777 749420 [email protected]
TSUNAMI RELIFE IN SRI LANKA - THE PRESIDENT'S FUND DETAILS:
Name of the Account : “ President’s Fund for Disaster Relief”
Bank : People’s Bank- Head Quarters Branch
Account Number : 204 100 190 136245
Type of the Account : Current Account
Swift Code : PSBKLKLX
Sort Cord : 204-7135
Online Transfer : Facility not available
THE COMPOSITION BY NIMAL MENDIS:
1st Verse
Oh see the foam
The foam-crested wave
Everyone is dying
No one to save
Rising terror thirty feet
Crashing on the shore
Rolling horror on the land
Destroying door to door
Did you need the tsunami
To leave war behind
To come together
Love each other
My child I cannot find.
CHORUS
Tsunami Tsunami
Can I forget this day
My hand has lost its grip
My child is washed away
Tsunami Tsunami
From the bottom of the quake
Why have you done this?
Hundreds and thousands to take
The sea speaks to you man
The sea speaks to you
I’m cleansing your sins man
And all of your motherland.
2nd Verse
I was watching the sea gull
Diving for the fish
It caught the swimming eel
Out of the deep
I remembered the bullet
Past my ear with a swish
I grabbed my child, saved ourselves
With one mighty leap.
Give me an answer
You transgressed the law
What is in your mind now
My child is no more.
CHORUS
Words and Music by Nimal Mendis.
Posted by: asiaradionews | Jan 15, 2005 at 05:29 PM