Veterans Day

On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the guns fell silent all along the western front. 

So ended the First World War – the most devastating war Europe had ever experienced; begun one hundred years ago last August, ending four bloody years later. 

It was the world’s first exposure to industrial-scale murder.  Over a billion (with a ‘b’) artillery shells were fired into the frontier of trenches that stretched across France and Belgium, from Switzerland to the North Sea.  Four million soldiers died in those trenches, and in the shell-pocked moonscape ‘no-man’s land’ hell that separated the sides. 

When it ended, there was briefly a hope that humanity had learned its lesson about militarism.  In that light, November 11 was established as a holiday to celebrate peace.  Here is the final clause in the US Congressional resolution of 1926:    

“Whereas the legislatures of twenty-seven of our States have already declared November 11 to be a legal holiday: Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), that the President of the United States is requested to issue a proclamation calling upon the officials to display the flag of the United States on all Government buildings on November 11 and inviting the people of the United States to observe the day in schools and churches, or other suitable places, with appropriate ceremonies of friendly relations with all other peoples.”

It’s an international holiday.  Though it goes by different names in different countries, the prayers for peace, and the expressions of respect for those who have borne the brunt of conflict are common. 

Greetings for Veteran’s Day, Armistice Day, Remembrance Day. 

Peace!