Remembrance Day - Veterans Day 11/11 at 11a.m.

The eleventh month, the eleventh day and the eleventh hour –

is the time that many countries take a moment of

silence to remember the veterans of wars.

Remembrance Day – also known as Poppy Day, Armistice Day (the event it commemorates) or Veterans Day – is a day to commemorate the sacrifices of members of the armed forces and of civilians in times of war, specifically since the First World War.

It is observed on 11 November to recall the end of World War I on that date in 1918. (Major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 with the German signing of the Armistice.) King George V specifically dedicated the day on 7 November 1919, to the observance of members of the armed forces who were killed during war.

In the United States it is called Veterans Day, Canada and Australia observe "Remembrance Day" on November 11, and Great Britain observes "Remembrance Day" on the Sunday nearest to November 11^th.

In Great Britain, the day is commemorated by church services and parades of ex-service members in Whitehall, a wide ceremonial avenue leading from London's Parliament Square to Trafalgar Square.

Wreaths of poppies are left at the Cenotaph, a war memorial in Whitehall, which was built after the First World War. At the Cenotaph and elsewhere in the country, a two-minute silence is observed at 11 a.m., to honor those who lost their lives in wars.

The practice of wearing of poppies takes its origin from the poem In Flanders Fields, written in 1915 by Dr. John McCrae. Poppies grow best in freshly turned earth, and the battlefields of the First World War were covered with red poppies and they became a reminder of the many people who had died during that war.

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IN FLANDERS FIELDS by Dr. 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.

Remembering all persons who have served in the military around the world

and continued prayers for peace on earth.

peacesojourner