{information
from Woodlands site}
Tomorrow is Remembrance Sunday in the UK. November is the time of the year when we wear a red poppy in memory of
those who sacrificed their lives for us during wars.
The eleventh
hour of the eleventh day
of the eleventh month marks the
signing of the Armistice, on 11th November 1918, to signal the end of World War
One.
At
11 am on 11 November 1918 the guns of the Western Front fell silent after more
than four years continuous warfare.
Remembrance Day is a special day set aside to remember all those men and women who
were killed during the two World Wars and other conflicts. At one time the day
was known as Armistice Day and
was renamed Remembrance Day
after the Second World War.
Remembrance Sunday
is held on the second Sunday in November, which is usually the Sunday nearest
to 11 November. This yearm 11th November is a Sunday, so it falls on
the actual day. Special services are held at war memorials and churches all
over Britain.
A
national ceremony takes place at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, London. The Queen lays the first
wreath at the Cenotaph.
Wreaths are laid beside war
memorials by companies, clubs and societies. People also leave small wooden crosses by the memorials
in remembrance of a family member who died in war. At my school, we laid
wreaths at the foot of a large cross that we have on the grounds, did a
respectful/reflective time of silence and read out the fourth stanza of ‘For
the Fallen’.
The ‘Last
Post’ is traditionally played to introduce the two minute silence in
Remembrance Day ceremonies. It is usually ' played on a bugle. (In military
life, 'The Last Post' marks the end of the day and the final farewell.)
Listen to the last post
The
sounding of ‘Reveille’ (or, more
commonly, ‘The Rouse’), ends the two minute silence, followed by the recitation
of the ‘Ode of Remembrance.’
A poem called 'For the Fallen' is often read aloud during
the ceremony; the most famous stanza of which reads:
"They shall grow not old, as we that are
left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going
down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them."{Fourth stanza of 'For the Fallen' by Laurence Binyon (1869 - 1943)}
Remembrance Day is also known as Poppy Day, because it is traditional
to wear an artificial poppy. They are sold by the Royal British Legion, a
charity dedicated to helping war veterans.
At 11am on each Remembrance Sunday a two minute
silence is observed at war memorials and other public spaces across the UK.
The First Two Minute
Silence in London (11th November 1919) as reported in the Manchester Guardian,
12th November 1919:
“The first stroke of eleven produced a magical
effect.
The tram cars glided into stillness, motors
ceased to cough and fume, and stopped dead, and the mighty-limbed dray horses
hunched back upon their loads and stopped also, seeming to do it of their own
volition.
Someone took off his hat, and with a nervous
hesitancy the rest of the men bowed their heads also. Here and there an old
soldier could be detected slipping unconsciously into the posture of
'attention'. An elderly woman, not far away, wiped her eyes, and the man beside
her looked white and stern. Everyone stood very still ... The hush deepened. It
had spread over the whole city and become so pronounced as to impress one with
a sense of audibility. It was a silence which was almost pain ... And the
spirit of memory brooded over it all.”
So support our troops and remember our fallen
heroes by buying and wearing a poppy in November and by having 2 minutes of
silence tomorrow at the 11th our of the 11th day of the
11th month (11am on 11th November).
Blessings!
Ronell x
"They shall grow not old, as we that are
left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going
down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them." {Fourth stanza of 'For the
Fallen' by Laurence Binyon}
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