It was 1965, Christmas Eve in Bozrah. The smell of baccala frying in olive oil is holding my family hostage as my Italian mother allocates the Christmas duties. Despite the possible repercussions, I was about to slip out the door to visit the elderly neighbors, Anna and Gustave Lorentz, when my mother waved a wooden spoon in my direction.

“Don’t stay too long, Connie Mary. It is Vigilia di Natale, Christmas Eve.”

Gus, being a World War I veteran, loves telling the story of The Christmas Truce of 1914. This story, true events, tells of a miracle that happened when British and German soldiers were fighting in the trenches on the Western Front from the English Channel to the Swiss border. It wasn’t called “No Man’s Land” for nothing.

In the weeks leading up to Christmas Eve the trenches were littered with bodies. In 1914, it was a different kind of war. A war of arm-to-arm combats, poisonous gas and deep trenches that, for many, became an early grave.

Is there a message in the Christmas Truce concerning peace that we, in 2021, can utilize and apply today? My friend Gus — who is no longer with us — believed so. His words still ring brave and true today.

Gus always began his stories by taking a sip of Anna’s Sanka coffee and lighting up a cigarette.

“Christmas Eve brought a heavy frost over the battletorn fields. Then, a strange silence overcame the trenches as lights shone suddenly in the distance. No one would have believed the lights were coming from Christmas trees lit with candles that German soldiers risked their lives to carry onto the field. There were more acts of bravery by soldiers who waged peace amongst war.

Alfred Kornitzke, a civilian pastry cook from Berlin, was fired upon while making marzipan balls in a German trench. Despite the danger, he ran with a Christmas tree directly into enemy lines, stopping to light the tree’s candles. The British stared in disbelief as a German soldier sang in a haunting, baritone voice, “Stille Nacht, Heilage Nacht.” Soon, everyone recognized the tune and began singing, “Silent Night, Holy Night,” in their own native language. An informal truce broke out across the front lines. Men who had been shooting at each other now shared photographs, tobacco, chocolate and beer. They played soccer and took time to bury the dead. Soldiers wrote home about this amazing miracle, and, despite military efforts to deny its existence — the truth lives on as bright and strong as the Christmas spirit itself.

Not all units participated in the truce, and not all soldiers agreed with it. One such soldier was a young German corporal named Adolf Hitler. Although Hitler’s unit was not on the front lines that Christmas, the future Nazi leader said of the truce: “Such a thing should not happen in wartime.”

But overall, there were far more men seeking peace than war that night.

Gus always ended the story with a message from the heart. And it was always at that moment, his wife Anna, who was quietly knitting in her chair, looked up at her husband and smiled when he said, “May this be a lesson to you, my young friend. Remember, man’s ability to hate is strong, but his ability to love is far stronger.”

Is there a message in the Christmas Truce concerning peace that we, in 2021, can utilize and apply today? My friend Gus, who died in 1964 — would believe so. Perhaps it is in the message of an anonymous World War I soldier who, like Gus, believed in the same peace and hope.

“At the end of every rifle is another human being fighting for his country, his family, his honor. When you put down your rifle, you may learn that your enemy is not so different from you.”

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, may there be peace on earth!

Concetta Falcone-Codding is a 1971 graduate of the Norwich Free Academy and is the author of “The Lonely Nest,” The story of two women whose short lives will one day make a difference in the world.

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