Remembrance Day

Discussions on all aspects of the First World War not covered in the other sections. Hosted by Terry Duncan.
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Benoit Douville
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Remembrance Day

#1

Post by Benoit Douville » 04 Nov 2004, 18:55

Here in Canada in the beginning of the month of November until Remembrance Day on the 11th of November we usually wear a little flower. It is pretty popular here but I am wondering if in other country who participated in World War I they wear that?
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Gwynn Compton
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#2

Post by Gwynn Compton » 04 Nov 2004, 22:29

We wear Poppy's here for Anzac Day on the 25th of April. Rememberance Day isn't a poppy wearing time for people down here, though it will be this year as our "Tomb of the Unknown Warrior" will be opened up on the 11th.

Gwynn


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Peter H
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#3

Post by Peter H » 05 Nov 2004, 00:52


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Gordon Bennett
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#4

Post by Gordon Bennett » 05 Nov 2004, 00:57

In Australia:

On ANZAC Day, 25 April we wear an ANZAC Day token with an optional sprig of Rosemary. We have a public holiday.

On Rememberance Day, November 11 we wear the Flanders' Poppy with an optional sprig of Rosemary. We observe 1 minutes silence at 11.00am

Rosemary is for rememberance.

Thay are all sold as fundraisers for the Returned and Services League.

http://www.rslvic.com.au/

Go to Appeals on the menu on the left hand side then to ANZAC Tokens and Poppy Appeal.

Cheers,

AB.
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walterkaschner
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#5

Post by walterkaschner » 05 Nov 2004, 03:14

When I was a boy growing up in the 1930s in a small town in the American mid-West November 11 was celebrated as "Armistice Day". There was always a parade of the American Legion (the WWI veterans organization), with a band and armed Honor Guard, which ended up in the county Courthouse Square shortly before 11:A.M. A minister from one of the local churches would then render a brief homily and a prayer thanking God for peace, and sharply at 11:A.M. all traffic would stop, the Honor Guard would fire a volley from their rifles, a bugler would play Taps, there would be two minutes of silence and my mother would dissolve in tears (she had lost a beloved cousin in the war, and her husband - my father - had been seriously wounded.) But no poppies.

Armistice Day, which celebrated the end of "The War to End All Wars" gradually lost its meaning when WWII and then the Korean War came along, and in the mid-1950s the name was changed to "Veterans Day." It is still a federal holiday, and is often recognized by a minute of silence at 3:00 P.M., but no longer has the poignancy that it had in the 1930s.

In my childhood Decoration Day (now called Memorial Day) was the day for poppies, which were made out of tissue paper and worn by everyone who feared being thought unpatriotic. It was held on the last Monday in May and was initially celebrated in the Northern States to honor the Union war dead in the American Civil War by decorating their graves with flowers. Eventually the day was adopted throughout the U.S. as the occasion to honor all war dead, both Northern and Southern, as well as those who gave their lives in all other wars from the Revolution forward.

In the town where I grew up it was another occasion for a veterans' parade, with Honor Guard but no band, only drums, and this time to the local cemetery, where the graves of all the veterans (a few had even fought in the Revolutionary War!) were decorated with miniature U.S. flags. Here again there was a religious service, then a rifle volley and again a bugle sounded Taps. And my mother's tears.

There wasn't much to do in that little town in those days, so virtually everyone participated in public events such as these. I haven't been back to my home town for either Veterans or Memorial Day for well over 50 years, but I would wager neither is as elaborately celebrated or as eagerly attended as when I was a child. Sic transit gloria mundi.


Regards, Kaschner

Gwynn Compton
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#6

Post by Gwynn Compton » 05 Nov 2004, 12:44

Out of interest, when is Rememberance Sunday, is it the first Sunday in November, or the sunday closest to the 11th?

Gwynn

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Gordon Bennett
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#7

Post by Gordon Bennett » 05 Nov 2004, 13:28

Remembrance Day in Australia is held on the actual day and time of the Armistice. The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11 month.

In Melbourne a service will be conducted at the Shrine of Remembrance and there will be Buglars at major city intersections.

http://www.shrine.org.au/content.asp?Document_ID=1034

Prior to WW2 in Australia it was known as Armistice Day and we did have two minutes silence.

In the UK Remembrance Sunday is usually the second Sunday in November which is closest to November 11. It is the day of the march past the Cenotaph in London and around the country as well as church services.

Here is a website with heaps of links to Remembrance Day around the world.

http://www.victorialodging.com/remembranceday/

Lest We Forget.

AB.

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Peter H
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#8

Post by Peter H » 05 Nov 2004, 14:30

From 1932-1944 the 10th November was Langemarck Day in Germany.

http://history1900s.about.com/library/p ... sacre1.htm

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Lord Gort
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#9

Post by Lord Gort » 05 Nov 2004, 14:52

In every village and town in Britain there is a memorial. In some towns there is a stone column or a stone soldier that stands quietly on High Street as shoppers pass. In others, the memorial is at the edge of a cemetery or a quiet park, where flowers appear on a day that is meaningful only to the unknown person who left them. In Scotland, kilted soldiers of the Highland Regiments stand eternal watch over the lochs and mountains.

At 11:00 on the 11th of November, the date and time of the Armistice, Britain stops for two minutes. Broadcasters stop their normal programming. Busses stop by the side of the road. Stores dim their lights and halt sales. In offices and schools people stop for two minutes to pay tribute and remember.


They will not grow old, as we who are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them or the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
we shall remember them

Gwynn Compton
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#10

Post by Gwynn Compton » 07 Nov 2004, 10:02

IIRC didn't they used to be able to put all the traffic lights on red as well?

Gwynn

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Gordon Bennett
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#11

Post by Gordon Bennett » 10 Nov 2004, 01:44

I though you lot might be interested.

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/ ... 91099.html

Cheers,

AB.

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RCW Mark
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#12

Post by RCW Mark » 10 Nov 2004, 09:04

The French have 11 November but don't have the poppies.

An odd thing is that the UK, Canada etc wear the poppies in November, --when they do not grow, so you need a paper one -- and the Kiwis and Australians in April, which due to the alternate seasons is also a time when they do not grow.

Mark

billi46
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#13

Post by billi46 » 10 Nov 2004, 23:56

RCW Mark wrote:The French have 11 November but don't have the poppies.
Mark
Hi !

In the years after 1918, the French wore the "Bleuet", a paper blue flower inspired by the real flowers on the fields (I believe the English name is "Cornflower"). A very similar thing to the Poppies that every British people wear.

But now, wearing that flower is less popular in France than for the British people. Instead of the paper flower, an adhesive badge is still sold for the day of November, 11 (and May, 8 for WWII remembrance day). Money goes to help war injuries and veterans.

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Benoit Douville
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#14

Post by Benoit Douville » 11 Nov 2005, 20:25

It is the 11th of November once again and let's remember all the braves veterans who died on the Battlefield during World War I.

Here is the poem written by Canadian soldier John McCrae in 1915 during the bloody Battle of Ypres:


In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.



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Kurt_Steiner
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#15

Post by Kurt_Steiner » 12 Nov 2005, 20:06

My apologies for arriving so late, but I would like to pay some bit of an homage to the Catalan volunteers who fought in the French army during WW1.

Lest we forget.

'No one cares less than I,
Nobody knows but God,
Whether I am destined to lie
Under a foreign clod...'
......(No One Cares Less than I)
......Edward Thomas

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