Veterans - Remembrance - Armistice Day

President Ronald Reagan's Speech at Point-du-Hoc, Normandy

Veterans Day, Armistice Day, Remembrance Day

Throughout the English-speaking world, today is a solemn day known in some countries as Remembrance Day, Poppy Day, Armistice Day, or here in the United States, as Veterans Day. It originated with the armistice signed "at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month" ending the First World War. More importantly, it honors countless souls who made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom, along with all those who served freedom's cause.

The Canadian blog, Piddingworth, has an especially beautiful tribute and collection of hymns during this month of remembrance. Wherever and however this day is commemorated, may we never forget and always honor the service and sacrifice of history's freedom fighters, and also that of their loved ones.

Veterans - Armistice - Remembrance Day

In 1918, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day in the eleventh month, the world rejoiced and celebrated. After four years of bitter war, an armistice was signed. The "war to end all wars" was over.

In 1921, an unknown World War I American soldier was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Similar ceremonies occurred earlier in England and France, where an unknown soldier was buried in each nation's highest place of honor (in England, Westminster Abbey; in France, the Arc de Triomphe).

These memorial gestures all took place on November 11, giving universal recognition to the celebrated ending of World War I fighting at 11 a.m..

Armistice Day officially received its name in America in 1926 through a Congressional resolution. It became a national holiday 12 years later by similar Congressional action. If the idealistic hope had been realized that World War I was "the War to end all Wars," November 11 might still be called Armistice Day. But only a few years after the holiday was proclaimed, war broke out in Europe.

Realizing that peace was equally preserved by veterans of WW II and Korea, Congress was requested to make this day an occasion to honor those who have served America in all wars. In 1954 President Eisenhower signed a bill proclaiming November 11 as Veterans Day.

A law passed in 1968 changed the national commemoration of Veterans Day to the fourth Monday in October. It soon became apparent, however, that November 11 was a date of historic significance to many Americans. Therefore, in 1978 Congress returned the observance to its traditional date.

We remember with prayerful thanks all those, the living and the dead, here and abroad, who served the cause of freedom. May we never lose the freedom so many died for. We will always remember them.

Remembrance -- Armistice -- Veterans Day

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.

John McCrae, 1915