English and Chinese children's stories

Joyeux Noël retells the story of a well-documented event that occurred on a battlefield in France on Christmas Eve, 1914.

One engagement of the Great War (WWI) involved some 3,000 soldiers from the Scottish, French, and German armies. On Christmas Eve, the German side began to sing "Silent Night." The Scots answered with a bagpipe accompaniment, and soon all three sides were singing the same song in unison from their trenches 100 meters apart. Imagine them singing together, in three languages, from the same trenches where a few hours earlier they had been killing one another. What a contrast!

Coaxed into peace by the warmth of this universally loved song, the warring sides ventured out of their trenches and agreed on an unofficial truce. In some places along the line, the Christmas truce lasted for ten days. Enemies exchanged photos, addresses, chocolate, champagne, and other small gifts. They discovered that they had more in common than they realized, including a cat that wandered from side to side and made friends with everyone, which both sides claimed as their mascot.

The erstwhile enemies communicated as best they could in each other's language. The German commander, Horstmayer, said to French Lieutenant Audebert, "When we take Paris, it will all be over. Then you can invite me up for a drink at your house in Rue Vavin!" "Don't feel that you have to invade Paris to get a drink at my house," Audebert replied.

影片「聖誕快樂」（Joyeux Noël，2005）（也譯作「近距交戰」）重述1914年的平安夜在法國戰場上所發生的一件事，這件事有史料為證。

這次交戰發生在第一次世界大戰期間，牽涉有當時來自蘇格蘭、法國和德國大約三千名士兵。平安夜當晚，德軍首先開始唱起「平安夜」。蘇格蘭士兵隨之以風笛伴奏，很快，三方士兵開始從相距100米遠的戰壕裡和諧地唱起同一首歌來。想像一下吧，他們在用三種不同的語言合唱，而就在幾個小時前，在同樣的戰壕裡，他們還在互相射擊呢。這是多麼強烈的對比啊！

這首普遍為人所愛之歌曲傳達的溫暖，把交戰各方帶入了一種和平境界，使他們大膽地走出戰壕，同意非正式休戰一段時間。在有些地方，聖誕期間的休戰甚至達十天之久。雙方士兵互換照片、地址、巧克力、香檳和其它一些小禮物。他們發現他們竟有那麼多共同之處，就連一隻貓也在各方之間跑來跑去跟大家交朋友，而雙方都宣稱那是自己的吉祥物呢。

先前的敵人現在竭力用對方的語言來交流。德軍司令官賀美達對法軍中尉奧迪伯特說：「等我們佔領巴黎時，一切就都結束了。那時你可以邀請我到你位於廬外林（Rue Vavin）的家裡喝一杯！」「你不必覺得一定要先侵略巴黎才能到我家裡小酌，」奧迪伯特回答說。

The friendship that was forged between the warring sides went beyond mere pleasantries. The morning after the Christmas truce ended, each side warned the other of artillery shelling that they knew was coming from their artillery units. Their newfound sense of camaraderie was so strong that each side even sheltered soldiers from the opposing side in their trenches to keep them from harm.

What brought about this incredible transformation? It all started with a shared love of Christmas music.

This incident reminds us that there is a cure to war, and that is to stop demonizing our enemies and learn to love them. Everyone needs to love and be loved. If we would each make an effort to get to know others with whom we seem to have little in common, we just might find, as the soldiers on that battlefield did, that we have quite a bit more in common than we realized.

交戰雙方建立的友誼超出純粹的輕鬆交談。聖誕休戰後的第二天上午，雙方都警告對方，自己的砲兵要開火了。他們新建立的友情是那麼深厚，甚至讓對方士兵藏在自己的戰壕裡，以防被己方的砲彈炸傷。

是什麼造成了這種不可思議的改變呢？一切都從共同熱愛聖誕音樂而開始。

這件事讓我們想到，戰爭是可以防止的，那就是不要把我們的敵人想成是魔鬼，而是學會去愛他們。每個人都需要愛和被愛。如果我們每個人都努力去了解似乎和我們沒有多少共同點的人，可能會發現，就像戰場上的那些士兵一樣，我們和那些人之間的共同點比我們認為的要多得多了。

Text courtesy of Activated magazine. Used by permission. Images from the movie Joyeux Noel (2005) by Christian Carion.

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建造生命：孩子的美德

9/5/2017

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孩童的第一本品格童書。配有大量鮮豔圖片並簡單的句子。

點擊這裡下載免費電子書。

建造生命：孩子的美德 from FreeChildrenStories

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上帝和我: 寬容 - God and Me: Tolerance

1/17/2017

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上帝和我: 寬容 - God and Me: Tolerance from FreeChildrenStories

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一顆水蜜桃的力量

8/30/2016

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在第二次世界大戰，托馬斯那一師的軍隊被義大利軍隊擄獲，結果他和他的同袍被帶去義大利。那些擄獲者們將他們遊街示眾，並想盡辦法公開羞辱祂們。路人也參與，盡情嘲笑他們，還吐口水在他們臉上，將憤怒和仇恨發洩在這些人身上。

突然之間，在這些戲笑人群當中，「一個年輕的女孩站了出來，將一顆水蜜桃塞到我手裡，我還來不及開口感謝她，她就一溜煙的跑掉了。」這位老兵這麼回述當時的情景。「那是我這輩子曾嚐過最好吃的水蜜桃。」

托馬斯在他古稀之年了，但當他敘述那個年輕義大利女孩在兩國交戰、彼此充滿仇恨與敵意，卻對他表現仁慈善意的這個經歷時，他的眼神散發出異彩。在他深感羞恥和絕望的時刻，這個不知名的女孩竟抵抗社會壓力，出於憐憫心給他一個簡單而真誠的禮物。她不把他視為敵國的一位士兵，而是一個需要仁慈的受傷之人。後來戰事漸告結束，他曾經歷多年艱困，還有之後，每當他需要力量去保守希望，把戰爭的傷痛及痛苦拋到腦後、並開始一個新生命時，他就會想起那顆水蜜桃。

那位年輕的義大利女孩或許並沒有把她的善行放在心上，對她來說畢竟那「只是」一顆水蜜桃而已。她大概從未想到這位士兵竟會在他下半輩子裡，如此珍惜她的善行，更再沒想到這故事會被特別拍在紀錄片裡，進而鼓舞其他人也將這感人的故事傳述下去。

願我們透過分享愛與憐憫的「水蜜桃」來締造和平，即使當這麼做會冒險或打破傳統也好，因為這麼一來，「果子」就會被栽種下來－－使疲累的靈魂得力，使悲傷的心喜悅，使寂寞的人感到被愛－－這是非常值得付出代價的。
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Story adapted from Activated magazine; used by permission.

Photo credits:
Image 1: National Geographic; used under Fair Use guidelines.
Image 2: Patrick via Flickr; used under Creative Commons-Attribution-Non Commercial license.
Image 3: Microsoft Clipart

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