November 11, 2003
Thanks for the lovely Armistice Day picture. Wish we actually did something for it here.
Posted by: Another Damned Medievalist at November 11, 2003 08:17 PMGawd ... I'm such an "American." I had no clue why you put this up -- thought you were saying farewell to Tulips (?) -- until I read the comment.
*sigh*
Posted by: Chris at November 11, 2003 08:56 PMMe too, Chris, me too. :)
Posted by: Rana at November 11, 2003 09:05 PMThanks for the photo. For several years now, I ask my students why they get a holiday for this day. Never more than two in any given class know that November 11 was the Armistice of the Great War.
It was renamed Veterams Day in 1954 when the new Korean veterans added to the World War veterans made Armistice less significant. That's just about the same time "under God" was inserted in the pledge of allegiance. Apparently, critical awareness of these notions, even in our current patriotic times, is not widespread.
Posted by: John at November 11, 2003 09:49 PMThank you for the picture. It inspired me to write a family story about a relative who served.
http://redted.blogspot.com/2003_11_09_redted_archive.html#106859880512857010
The comments above remind me of something my wife once said: the Great War is real and present for historians and folkies. Some read about it and teach about it, others sing the songs, but for us the great traumatic moments in the past are, Faulkneresque, not really past.
Ted K.
Posted by: Ted K. at November 11, 2003 10:57 PMIsn't IA from Canada originally? As a Canadian,
this photo says "Remembrance Day" to me loudly and clearly!
Thank you, IA.
Posted by: Barry at November 12, 2003 07:08 AMDoes anyone know what it's called in the UK? also Remembrance Day? All I know is that there is still a couple of minutes of silence observed while wreaths are left at the War Memorial.
I'm a Murcan too, but have a deep affection for the WWI poets -- probably from too much (is there such a thing?) Peter Wimsey. And since I like to remain employed, I teach the Great War, which has somehow been ignored here in favor of WW II and VietNam. Not in my classroom!
Posted by: Another Damned Medievalist at November 12, 2003 02:58 PMDoes anyone know what it's called in the UK? also Remembrance Day? All I know is that there is still a couple of minutes of silence observed while wreaths are left at the War Memorial.
Yes, it's called Remembrance Day. In fact, there are two days: Remembrance Sunday, which is the nearest Sunday to 11 November, and then 11 November itself with two minutes of silence at 11am throughout the country and a ceremony at the Cenograph with the Queen.
Thanks for the pictorial tribute