What is Remembrance Day?
• Remembrance Day, in one form or another, is celebrated by most countries in the world but at varying times. From a Canadian perspective, it is celebrated in recognition of the time the armistice came into effect – the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month – when the guns of the First World War fell silent. As this was the war to end all wars it was this time that was selected and has remained so since. The need for Remembrance Day was in response to a requirement for people to come together to express their grief on the loss of so many loved ones and to remember. In the words of King George V, 11 November, “…is the anniversary of the armistice which stayed the world-wide carnage of the four preceding years and marked the victory of right and freedom. I believe that my people in every part of the Empire fervently wish to perpetuate the memory of that great deliverance and of those who laid down their lives to achieve it.” This day “..affords an opportunity for the un
