Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35669

On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month we have a 2 minute silence over here in the UK to remember our war dead (i.e, 11th November at 11am).

On remembrance Sunday (which will actually be the 11th this year) they have many old soldiers march past the Cenotaph (a monument) and they salute as they walk by it. The 1st World War veterans are pretty few know and have to be pushed in wheelchairs.

There are memorial services all over the country and the silence is observed by pretty much everyone in teh country; shops and schools stop still for the two minutes. At many of the services they read an extract from 'For the Fallen', a poem by Lawrence Binyon;

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them

(whole poem is available
here). The Last Post is played on the bugle and it is all very sad and solemn. (That poem is so sad, you can see the veterans crying sometimes).

I wondered when the rest of the world carry out their remebrance services. I gather that there is a day called 'Veteran's Day' (a national holiday?) in the US but I know nothing more. Does the rest of the commonwealth have the same day as us?

What sort of thing do people do? Do all schools and businesses get involved?

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: zanzibar
Posts: 10477

http://www.usmemorialday.org/backgrnd.html

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Registered: Mar 2001
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 2451

We have a couple in the US, Veteran's day and Memorial day, but they are not as widely observed. Yes alot of people get the day off, but it often seems like few actually do anything that smacks of remembering the fallen soldiers of our past, it's kinda sad when you think about it.

-g

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35669

Reading DevilMoon's link I was reminded of something that I didn't mention, which is the wearing of poppies. All the wreaths are made of poppies (mostly plastic and paper; they are left at the memorials for some time). Most of us will wear a poppy too.

Many of the fields in which the dead lay were full of poppies, a fact remembered in this poem that was linked on DM's page:

In Flanders Fields
John McCrae, 1915.


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.

(I think that it was the British legion started selling poppies for the war widows (and maybe the veterans too))

War poetry is about the only sort I really like. It has the added advantage that most people on the net aren't writing any, thank God.

Last edited by Smug Git on 11-08-2001 at 07:07 PM

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Montreal
Posts: 2993

The same day (Remeberance Day) is celebrated over here in Canada. The excat same ceremonies occur aswell. I'm always woken on the 11th by the cannons being fired down in the river valley. They echo across the entire city. It's really quite errie, but when the firing stops the entire city is so silent.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Location Location
Posts: 26420

You all go to such lengths to celebrate Paintmas.

It moves me.

*sniff*

(BUY ME BEER!!!!)

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Montreal
Posts: 2993

it's my birthady too Paint..but fuck have some respect.

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quote:

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Originally posted by CRSR
it's my birthady too Paint..but fuck have some respect.

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Registered: Apr 2001
Location: 0.50
Posts: 9355

you don't get beer, fool. now honoUr the day on which we remember people i didn't know.

wait. that's not even today, is it? nevertheless, you should respect the idea of the day on which we remember people that died so that we could be free to not care.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: A New England
Posts: 9187

quote:

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Originally posted by Paint CHiPs
(it's M*I*L*K's birthday as well, though that rotten cunt is too stuck up to show her face around here)

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You were thinking of something like this?

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Registered: Nov 2000
Location: NH
Posts: 586

That was foul, Goat.

Anyhoo,this is how boring NH celebrates Veteran's Day.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: zanzibar
Posts: 10477

Here is a link on the history of the US Veteran's Day

http://www.vfw.org/amesm/origins.shtml

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Sydney
Posts: 2570

(iglo)
weird , on 11th november 11:11am the german carnival starts its new season

coincidence ???
who knows

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: the heart of an awl
Posts: 3692

reading today's paper, i see that one of the local indian tribes is sponsoring a Veterans Day celebration featuring a color guard, a few guest speakers, the Budweiser Girls, some blues bands, and double odds on all table games during happy hour.

i wish, so much do i wish, that i was making this up.

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: LfuckinA
Posts: 3375

Both Veteran's Day and Memorial Day here in the U.S. serve to remember all that the people who fought for us did. What better way to celebrate the capitalism and hegemony that they died for than to have a bunch of sales at the malls? It's a day to celebrate money. I tend to think that perhaps this year, some people will actually stop and think about the people who fought in wars rather than how much money they can save on that wonderful scarf that they're buying for the holidays.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Location Location
Posts: 26420

Fucking veterans trying to hone in on my action.

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Registered: Nov 2000
Location: NH
Posts: 586

quote:

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Originally posted by Paint CHiPs
Fucking veterans trying to hone in on my action.

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