What is Remembrance Day?

By Terrie Todd

On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, the First World War officially ended with the signing of the armistice agreement. Originally called “Armistice Day,” this day was first observed in 1919 throughout the British Commonwealth.

From 1921 to 1930, Armistice Day was held on the Monday of the week in which November 11 fell. In 1931, the House of Commons changed its name to “Remembrance Day” and set it for November 11 every year thereafter. The United States used to commemorate Armistice Day on November 11. In 1954 they changed the name to Veterans Day.

Each year, the Royal Canadian Legion sells poppies to raise funds to assist veterans.

As a girl in elementary school, I recall standing in the assembly hall for this occasion every November 11. We’d wear poppies, sing O Canada and Oh God, Our Help in Ages Past. We’d spend a full interminable minute in silence, staring at our shoes. Wreaths would be laid. One of the older students would recite John McCrae’s poem, In Flanders Fields. We might have had a bugler or trumpeter play The Last Post if our small community had had one. A veteran or two would say a word. We’d close with the singing of God Save the Queen. Then we’d get to go home for the remainder of the day. If we were lucky, there’d be snow to play in.

To me, it seemed an event about old men. Now I realize that most of my community’s WWII vets, like my father, were only in their forties at the time. Now that I’m a mother of adult sons and a daughter who did a short military stint, I see it all through a completely different lens.

Every year on November 11, Canadians pause in a moment of silence to honor and remember the men and women who have served and continue to serve Canada during times of war, conflict and peace. We remember the more than 2,300,000 Canadians who have served throughout our nation’s history and the more than 118,000 killed in action.

Canada’s national ceremony is held at the National War Memorial in Ottawa, with the Governor General of Canada presiding. The televised ceremony is also attended by the Prime Minister, other government officials, representatives of Veterans’ organizations, other dignitaries, veterans, as well as the general public. Usually, a children’s choir sings. When I hear them, I’m transported back to that elementary school assembly with the somber adults and the mysterious traditions that now mean a whole lot more.

Canada's National War Memorial in Ottawa

Terrie Todd is the award-winning author of four historical and two split-time novels. Rose Among Thornes won the 2022 Word Award for best cover and the Debra Fieguth Social Justice award. The Last Piece won The Word Guild’s best contemporary novel award. Her next book, Lilly’s Promise, releases next month. Terrie lives with her husband, Jon, in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, Canada where they raised their three children. They are grandparents to five boys.
 

 

 

 

 

From soup explosions to fearsome medical procedures, from the stories behind our favorite Christmas carols to meeting a first grandchild, Terrie Todd’s popular “Faith and Humor” column has been encouraging and amusing readers of The Graphic Leader for ten years. This book celebrates a decade of wit and wisdom found in Terrie’s hand-picked favorites. Arranged by category, Out of My Mind could be called a weirdly out-of-order memoir of a life in which faith and humor dwell hand in hand. Categories include: Faith, Marriage & Family, The Writing Life, Health & Fitness, Easter, Mother’s & Father’s Day, Thanksgiving, Remembrance Day, Christmas. Out of My Mind makes a great gift for any occasion.

Follow Terrie here:
Blog
Facebook
Quarterly Newsletter Sign-up

One of the Greatest Freedoms

The original star spangled banner - on display at the
Smithsonian’s National Museum of American
History in Washington, D.C.
http://www.si.edu/Encyclopedia_SI/nmah/starflag.htm

Recently, many of us exercised one of the greatest freedoms known to mankind - the freedom to cast a vote. We also honored Veteran's Day, where we celebrate the countless men and women who have served our country to ensure this basic freedom, knowing the great importance of maintaining a democracy.

With the tip of a pen, we possess the ability to rise to power men and women who will make decisions that not only affect us, but future generations to come. We shouldn't, for one moment, take that responsibility lightly.

When we cast our educated vote, our end goal should not be the hope of who fills the Oval Office, or a seat in the House or Senate. We should vote with the knowledge that it is but one step toward making America the kind of home we want a generation not yet created to inherit.

With the election so recently held, I think of our Founding Fathers and the nation they envisioned for us. Many of them didn't simply cast a ballot, they cast their lives for a dream - a dream of one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

"Now more than ever before, the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness and corruption. If it be intelligent, brave and pure, it is because the people demand these high qualities to represent them in the national legislature.... If the next centennial does not find us a great nation ... it will be because those who represent the enterprise, the culture, and the morality of the nation do not aid in controlling the political forces."

James Garfield, the twentieth president of the United States, 1877

"Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature."

Benjamin Franklin

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

Abraham Lincoln

"We have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us."

Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation

"The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind. Where, some say, is the king of America? I'll tell you, friend, He reigns above."

Thomas Paine

"Those people who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants."

William Penn

"If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our country will go on prospering and to prosper; but if we and our posterity neglect its instruction and authority, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury all our glory in profound obscurity."

Daniel Webster

"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here."

Patrick Henry

What about you? Did you exercise your freedom to vote? Who did you honor on Veteran's Day?

Gabrielle Meyer lives in central Minnesota on the banks of the Mississippi River with her husband and four children. As an employee of the Minnesota Historical Society, she fell in love with the rich history of her state and enjoys writing fictional stories inspired by real people and events.

Find her on Facebook
Find her on Pinterest
Find her on Twitter
Find her on Amazon
Find her on Goodreads
Find her on Her Website
Sign up for Her Newsletter