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DU Carillon Player Will Join Worldwide Commemoration Of WWI Christmas Truce

DENVER (CBS4) - To mark a peaceful moment in a horrific war, the University of Denver will ring Christmas hymns on Wednesday night in commemoration of the famous World War I Christmas truce between German and English soldiers.

On Dec. 24, 1914, soldiers from opposing sides laid down their guns and joined together in the middle of a Belgian battlefield to exchange gifts and sing hymns.

DU will observe the truce by ringing hymns, including "Silent Night," from its Williams Tower starting at 7:14 p.m.

"They came out and sang Christmas carols and had a lovely night of rejoicing in peace," DU adjunct instructor and carillon player Carol Jickling Lens told Colorado Public Radio. "They're not positive 'Silent Night' was the first song sung, but it has become the one that's most associated with the truce."

Lens, who plays and teaches the carillon at DU, will perform alongside musicians worldwide. Each musician will play at 7:14 p.m. local time.

DU's carillon features 65 bronze bells, its largest weighing six tons. Performers play the instrument with a piano-like keyboard and foot pedals that they strike with hands and feet. It's located near South University Boulevard and East Jewell Avenue.

"It touches me. It makes a gorgeous booming sound that to me is a part of everyday life along with the birds and the wind," Lens says on her profile DU's website. "I hope I'm giving that kind of pleasure to other people."

Stanley Weintraub, a professor who has studied and written about World War I, told CBS New York that the truce began when Germans erecting Christmas trees atop their trenches. Just 75 yards away, British soldiers crawled from their trenches to meet in no man's land.

After burying the dead, they shared beer and gifts, Weintraub said. The British offered chocolates and tobacco, while the Germans gave cigars and sausages.

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