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It Was German Soldiers Who Made First Move in the Christmas Truce

William Keylor Boston University The Christmas Truce is no stranger to popular entertainment – 2014 more than any other as its 100th anniversary is marked. The famous moment when British and German soldiers climbed out of the trenches in peace on Christmas Day 1914 has been replicated and ruminated upon in

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How the Salvation Army’s Red Kettles Became a Christmas Tradition

How the Salvation Army’s Red Kettles Became a Christmas Tradition

Diane Winston USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism Tinseled trees and snowy landscapes are not the only signs of the upcoming holiday season. Red kettles, staffed by men and women in street clothes, Santa suits and Salvation Army uniforms, also telegraph Christmastime. The Salvation Army is among America’s

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The Amazing Growth of the Christmas Tree

The Amazing Growth of the Christmas Tree

François Lévêque Mines ParisTech A few hundred years ago, who would have dreamed that the humble Christmas tree would one day be an immense global success? Certainly not Martin Luther, who is said to have decorated a tree with candles to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. Nor Prince Albert,

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The Christmas Truce of World War I

The Christmas Truce of World War I

William Norman Grigg (1963-2017) was Managing Editor of the Libertarian Institute and an award-winning investigative journalist and author. He was the author of five books, most recently Liberty in Eclipse: The War on Terror and the Rise of the Homeland Security State. Mr. Grigg wrote and published the

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Presents from a Princess

Presents from a Princess

Peter Doyle London South Bank University Professor, London South Bank University; PhD geology; geology, military geoscience and military history research background; Secretary of the All Party Parliamentary War Heritage Group; British Commission on Military History member; author of 41 books (military history, geoscience) and numerous papers on geology, military geology,

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gold and red hanging decor

Decking the Halls of History

Anne Lawrence-Mathers University of Reading The idea of hanging up decorations in the middle of winter is older than Christmas itself. Decorations are mentioned in ancient descriptions of the Roman feast of Saturnalia, which is thought to have originated in the 5th century BC. Some 900 years later, a

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people in brown traditional dress standing on green grass during daytime

Which Medieval Christmas Traditions Have We Kept?

Giles Gasper Durham University Giles Gasper’s main fields are in the history of medieval culture and religion: medieval science and natural phenomena; the making of medieval theology and the understanding of creation; monastic life; the influence of classical and patristic thinkers on later centuries; and medieval food and drink.

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James Webb Space Telescope Revealing Early Universe

James Webb Space Telescope Revealing Early Universe

Daniel Merino Associate Science Editor & Co-Host of The Conversation Weekly Podcast Nehal El-Hadi Science + Technology Editor The Conversation If you want to know what happened in the earliest years of the universe, you are going to need a very big, very specialized telescope. Much to the joy

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Cambridge Dictionary Goes Woke and Redefines ‘woman’

Cambridge Dictionary Goes Woke and Redefines ‘woman’

Kurt Mahlburg mercatornet.com Kurt Mahlburg is a writer and author, and an emerging Australian voice on culture and the Christian faith. He has a passion for both the philosophical and the personal, drawing on his background as a graduate architect, a primary school teacher, a missionary and a young

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Who is the Government?

Who is the Government?

The Doctor Ewan Campbell is best known for his innovative soil-conditioning system. It was apparently such a threat to mainstream fertiliser companies that he became the subject of a weird commerce commission investigation for misleading claims. Then, to top off the persecution, he was imprisoned for tax crimes on

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Auckland Zoo Celebrates a Century of Wild Life

Auckland Zoo Celebrates a Century of Wild Life

Jane Healy Communications Manager Auckland Zoo Auckland Zoo is celebrating its centenary today, a century during which generations of New Zealanders have been at the heart of its journey to becoming the wildlife conservation organisation it is today. “On the eve of venturing into our next century together, there couldn’

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It Is Really Simple: One Man One Vote

It Is Really Simple: One Man One Vote

Hello, it’s “All things Political” with John Porter on Bay FM, and today I’m reading an e-mail I was sent recently. These are not my words but seemingly, they represent the feeling of a hell of lot of New Zealanders. Firstly, we have to start telling the

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The History and Trends of NZ By-Elections

The History and Trends of NZ By-Elections

On Saturday was the long-awaited Hamilton West by-election. The final result was much in line with what had been forecast but which many of us didn’t dare to hope would actually eventuate! A swing of 21 per cent from Labour to National: annihilation territory for the socialists.

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