World War I is, for good reason, remembered as one of the worst wars fought in human history.

　　第一次世界大战，有充分理由被认为是人类历史上最惨烈的战争之一。

　　Millions of soldiers and civilians died in a conflict that changed the way war was waged and set the stage for the rest of the 20th century.

　　数百万的士兵和百姓在这场冲突中丧生，它改变了战争的方式，也为20世纪的后几十年奠定了格局。

　　But for one night and one day, some units in the warring parties — the armies of France and Britain on one side, and Germany on the other — put down their weapons for the briefest of moments to celebrate a holiday that brought opposing sides together.

　　但是，有一天一夜，战场上的某些部队——法国和英国士兵一边，德国一边——放下武器，团聚起来庆祝一个节日。

　　The Great War was supposed to be over by Christmas of 1914. But five months after the war began in July, the front was deadlocked. The unprecedented losses at the Battles of Tannenberg, the Marne, and Ypres forced the opposing sides into the gruesome trench warfare that WWI is known for.

　　这次大战原本在1914年的圣诞节前就应当结束了。战争在7月份爆发，5个月后，前线开始僵持。双方在坦能堡战役、马恩战役和伊普雷斯战役中都遭受了前所未有的损失，这迫使双方陷入了一战中著名的惨烈的堑壕战。

　　Huddled in their trenches on Christmas Eve, soldiers on both sides across the entire Western frontline celebrated the holiday as best as they could. Soon, all along the frontline combatants began to leave their trenches without their weapons, and meet enemy soldiers in no man’s land.

　　平安夜那天，整个西部前线的士兵在他们的战壕里挤在一起，尽其所能地庆祝这个节日。很快，前线的战士们不带武器就出了战壕，到无人地带去见敌兵。

　　What followed was an amazing episode for humanity; enemies who were just hours ago slaughtering each other at a level unseen in human history, were talking, singing, dancing, and eating together as if they were friends.

　　接下来发生的是人性令人吃惊的一幕：几个小时前还在以人类历史上从未见过的程度相互残杀的双方士兵，开始交谈、唱歌、跳舞，分享好吃的，就好像他们是朋友一样。

　　In letters to newspapers and loved ones, soldiers describe how a spontaneous truce broke out.

　　在给报社和家人的书信中，这些士兵描述了这种自发的休战是如何发生的。

　　"During Christmas Day our fellows and the Saxons fixed up a table between the two trenches and they spent a happy time together, and exchanged souvenirs and presented one another with little keepsakes," one British soldier wrote.

　　一位英国士兵写道：“在圣诞节这天，我们的伙伴和撒克逊人在两个战壕之间修好了一张桌子，一起度过了愉快的时光，互相交换了礼物并赠送了小纪念品。”

　　"I had a most extraordinary Christmas, and I have come to the conclusion that I would not have spent it out of the trenches for worlds," another British soldier said in a letter to loved ones. After establishing a truce, the soldier said that "in five minutes the ground between the opposing trenches was full of Germans and Highlanders exchanging cigars for cigarettes, and many other small luxuries."

　　另一名英国士兵在写给亲人的信中说：“我度过了一个非常特别的圣诞节，我得出的结论是，不管怎样我不会在战壕里过节。”在停战后，这位士兵说，“五分钟后，敌对的战壕里到处都是德国人和高地人，他们用雪茄交换香烟，以及许多其他的小奢侈品。”

　　In some places, soccer games were held in no man’s land; sometimes against each other, and sometimes with mixed teams. "The regiment actually had a football match with the Germans who beat them 3-2," an officer in the Royal Army Medical Corps wrote in a letter to a friend in London.

　　在有些地区，他们还在无人地带举办了足球比赛，有时是交战双方，有时是混合团队。英国皇家陆军医疗队的一名军官在给伦敦一位朋友的信中写道：“这个团还与德国人进行了一场足球比赛，德国队3比2赢了他们。”

　　Soldiers on both sides also buried their dead and had Christmas services as if they were in church.

　　双方士兵还埋藏了死去战友的尸体，并像他们之前在教堂那样做了圣诞礼拜。

　　Perhaps the best way to sum up the truce was said by a British soldier whose letter to the Carlisle Journal was published on January 5, 1915:

　　或者最好的总结休战的方式是一名英国士兵在1915年1月5日发表的一封致《卡莱尔期刊》的信中所说：

　　"All this talk of hate, all this firing at each other that has raged since the beginning of the war quelled and stayed by the magic of Christmas," he wrote.

　　他写道：“所有这些对仇恨的言论，所有这些自战争开始后双方的交火，都在圣诞的魔力下消除。”

　　"It speaks to the common humanity in the midst of war, and to the very best of who we are — which is one of those things that we recognize during the holiday season," Lora Vogt, the Curator of Education at the National WWI Museum and Memorial, told Business Insider.

　　国家一战博物馆和纪念馆的教育馆长Lora Vogt告诉《商业内幕》，““它反映了战争期间共同的人性，以及我们最好的自己——这是我们在节日里意识到的事情之一。”

　　Sadly, the high commands of both sides did not approve of the actions of their soldiers. Some units were punished or transferred to other parts of the frontline, and no truces were ever held again for the rest of the war.

　　可悲的是，双方的高层指挥者们不赞成他这些士兵的行为。一些部队被惩罚，或是转移到前线的其他地方，此后，一战中再也未出现过休战。

　　A century after the war began, German and British soldiers still get together to play soccer and celebrate Christmas. Now they do so as allies; part of the hopeful peace that the soldiers of 1914 no doubt prayed for in the trenches on the Western Front.

　　在战争发生过的一个世纪后，德国和英国士兵仍然聚在一起踢足球，庆祝圣诞。现在他们像盟友一样：毫无疑问，这正是1914年士兵们在西线的战壕里所祈祷的、充满希望的和平的一部分。