Remembrance Day is
observed on November 11th.
It is a statutory
holiday throughout all
of Canada except Ontario
and Québec.
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We
must remember. If we do not, the sacrifice of those
one hundred thousand Canadian lives will be
meaningless. They died for us, for their homes and
families and friends, for a collection of traditions
they cherished and a future they believed in; they
died for Canada. The meaning of their sacrifice rests
with our collective national consciousness; our future
is their monument.
~Heather
Robertson, A Terrible Beauty, The Art of Canada at
War, Toronto, Lorimer, 1977 |
Remembrance Day
commemorates Canadians
who died in the First
and Second World Wars
and the Korean War.
The first Remembrance
Day was conducted in
1919 throughout the
Commonwealth. Originally
called Armistice Day, it
commemorated the end of
the First World War,
"the War to end all
Wars", on Monday,
November 11, 1918 at
11:00 AM (the eleventh
hour of the eleventh day
of the eleventh month).
From 1923 to 1931,
Armistice Day was held
on the Monday of the
week in which November
11 fell. Thanksgiving
was also celebrated on
this day. In 1931, M.P.
Allan Neill introduced a
bill to hold Armistice
Day on a fixed day -
November 11. During the
bill's introduction, it
was decided the word
"Remembrance" would be
used instead of
"Armistice". The bill
passed and Remembrance
Day was conducted on
November 11, 1931.
Thanksgiving Day was
moved to October 12 that
year.
In the USA, Remembrance
Day is known as
Veterans Day. The
dead of World War II and
Korea, and of all other
wars are also remembered
on this day. In Britain,
Canada and much of the
Commonwealth, and in
France, Belgium and
other parts of Europe,
it is observed with a
two minutes silence at
11:00 AM.
The poppy is the symbol
that individuals use to
show that they remember
those who were killed in
the wars and peace
keeping operations that
Canada has been involved
in. Replica poppies are
sold by the Royal
Canadian Legion to raise
money for needy
veterans.
The tradition of wearing
poppies in honor of
Canada's war dead takes
its origin from the poem
"In Flanders Fields,"
written in 1915 by
Lieutenant-Colonel John
McCrae. John McCrae was
a Canadian Medical
Officer during the First
World War. His poem
reflects his first hand
account of what he
witnessed while working
from a dressing station
on the bank of the Yser
Canal.
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In Flanders Fields
written in 1915 by John
McCrae
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.
Flanders, in north-west Belgium, was the scene of one
of the bloodiest battles of the World War I. One
of the few things said to have survived the bloodshed
was the poppy. Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae, a Canadian doctor
serving on the battlefield, wrote this poem after
treating the battle wounded and burying the dead. |
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