Remembrance Day

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Remembrance Day or Armistice Day is a day of commemoration observed in the Commonwealth of Nations and various European countries (including France and Belgium) to commemorate World War I and other wars. It is observed on November 11 to recall the end of World War I on that date in 1918. Remembrance Day is specifically dedicated to members of the armed forces who were killed during war, and was created by King George V of the United Kingdom on November 7, 1919 upon the suggestion of Edward George Honey.

1 Observance
- 1.1 The poppies
2 See also
3 External links
4 References

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Observance

Image:Poppy.gif Common British, Canadian, South African and ANZAC traditions include two minutes of silence at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month because that was the time (in Britain and France) when the armistice became effective. The two minutes recall World War I and World War II; before 1945 the silence was for one minute.

Image:Westminsterabbeypoppies.jpg In the United Kingdom, although two minutes' silence is observed on November 11 itself, the main observance is on the second Sunday of November, Remembrance Sunday. Ceremonies are held at local communities' War Memorials, usually organized by local branches of the Royal British Legion – an association for ex-serviceman. Typically poppy wreaths are laid. "The Last Post" is played by a trumpeter or bugler, two minutes' silence is observed and broken by a trumpeter playing "Reveille". A minute's or two minutes' silence is also frequently incorporated into church services on that day. The main commemoration is held in Whitehall in central London, where the Queen, Prime Minister, and other senior political and military figures join with veterans to lay wreaths at the Cenotaph.

In Canada the day is a holiday for federal government employees. However, for private business, provincial governments, and schools, its status varies by province. In Western and Atlantic Canada it is a general holiday. In Ontario and Quebec, it is not a general holiday, although corporations which are federally registered may make the day a full holiday, or instead designate a provincially-recognized holiday on a different day. Schools usually hold assemblies for the first half of the day or on the school day prior with various presentations concerning the remembrance of the war dead. Thousands of people gather near the National War Memorial in Ottawa. Among the crowd war veterans, some in wheelchairs, pay their respects to fallen sailors, soldiers, and airmen. Image:ClarksonRemCC.jpg In South Africa, the day is not a public holiday. Commemoration ceremonies are usually held on the following Sunday, at which, as with Australia and Britain, the "Last Post" is played by a bugler followed by the observation of a two-minute silence.

The two biggest commemoration ceremonies to mark the event in South Africa are held in Johannesburg, at the Cenotaph (where it has been held for 84 consecutive years), and at the War Memorial at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.

In Australia Remembrance Day is always observed on November 11, although the day is not a public holiday. Services are held at 11am at war memorials in suburbs and towns across the country, at which the "Last Post" is played by a bugler and a one-minute silence is observed. In recent decades, however, Remembrance Day has been partly eclipsed by ANZAC Day (April 25) as the national day of war commemoration.

Veterans Day is celebrated in the United States on the same date, but the function of the observance elsewhere is more closely matched by Memorial Day in May. In the United States and some other allied nations November 11 was formerly known as Armistice Day; in the United States it was given its new name after the end of World War II.

For Anglican and Roman Catholic Christians, there is a coincidental but appropriate overlap of Remembrance Day with the feast of St. Martin of Tours, a saint famous for putting aside his life as a soldier and turning to the peace-filled life of a monk. Statues or images associated with St. Martin are for this reason sometimes used as symbols of Remembrance Day in religious contexts (e.g., the Anglican Cathedral of Montreal).

In Germany, Armistice or Remembrance Day is unknown. Public memory of World War I in Germany is generally scarce. Moreover, November 11 would be seen as an inappropriate date for such a holiday, as it traditionally marks the beginning of the German carnival. However, Volkstrauertag is commemorated. Originally this was on the fifth Sunday before Easter, but since 1952, has been celebrated two Sundays before the beginning of Advent. It has never been celebrated in the church since both the major German churches have their own festivals for commemorating the dead (All Saints Day in the case of the RC church, Ewigkeitssonntag, or "Eternity Sunday" in the case of the Lutheran church. Both festivals also fall in November.)

In Poland on November 11 the Independence Day is celebrated. On 11 Nov 1918 Poland regained its independence after being divided between Russia, Prussia and Austria for 123 years.

In many locations around the world where small, expatriate British and Commonwealth communities meet to observe the silence, it is a tradition that the event is followed by a curry lunch.Template:Fact

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The poppies

Image:Remebrance poppy ww2 section of Aust war memorial.jpg The poppy's significance to Remembrance Day is a result of Canadian military physician John McCrae's poem "In Flanders Fields". The poppy emblem was chosen because of the poppies that bloomed across some of the worst battlefields of Flanders in World War I, their red colour an appropriate symbol for the bloodshed of trench warfare. A French woman by the name of Madame E. Guérin introduced the widely used artificial poppies given out today. Some people choose to wear white poppies, which emphasises a desire for peaceful alternatives to military action. An organisation called People Against Global Imperialism produce and wear black poppies.

In Britain the poppies are the flat Earl Haig variety and in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand the poppies are curled at the petals.

In Sri Lanka in the inter-war years, there were rival sales of yellow Suriya (portia tree) flowers by the Suriya-Mal Movement on Remembrance Day, since funds from poppy sales were not used for Sri Lankan ex-service personnel but were repatriated to Britain. However, nowadays poppy sales are used for indigenous ex-service personnel.

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