Richard Froese
Remembrance Day will be commemorated across Canada on Nov. 11.
Canadians will gather in Legion halls, gymnasiums, community halls, other venues and around cenotaphs to remember those who fought in various wars for freedom in our country.
It is a time to reflect and remember the countless local men and women – and others across Canada – who committed and sacrificed their lives and to honour those veterans still living.
Canadians are blessed to live in a peaceful country. All a person has to do is to watch nightly TV newscasts and see the wars and the aftermath of conflict and unrest all around the world.
Many aging veterans are still living – although the numbers are declining.
Thank each and every local veteran for their service to their country – our country – Canada.
Many newcomers to Canada and local communities have come from countries in conflict seeking a better safer life.
Without our freedoms, where would Canada be?
Nobody ever wants or ever deserves to live in a country being attacked by another.
Canada has a worldwide reputation as being one of the leading nations in the world with the most freedoms, compared with other countries around the world, despite what many Canadians think about homeland freedoms.
Remembrance Day was first observed in 1919 throughout the British Commonwealth. It was originally called Armistice Day to commemorate the armistice agreement that ended the First World War on Monday, Nov. 11, 1918 at 11 a.m.
It’s also simply described as the eleventh hour on the eleventh day on the eleventh month.
Leading up to Nov. 11, students in schools across the local region and Canada will participate in the No Stone Left Alone ceremony at cemeteries. Students will place poppies on the graves of veterans. This will be the 13th year for the No Stone Left Alone program in Canada.
Local schools will also have their own special ceremonies days before Remembrance Day when students, veterans and Legion members will share a time to remember.
For 102 years, the poppy has been a great symbol of remembrance. Wear a poppy and take time to remember, honour and thank those who served to fight for freedoms in Canada.
Poppy boxes are out in the community in various businesses, municipal offices and other locations. People are encouraged to donate to the Poppy Fund to support the veterans and their families.
From the last Friday of October, to Remembrance Day, millions of Canadians wear a poppy as a visual pledge to never forget those who served and sacrificed.
The red flower is also the symbol of the Legion’s Poppy Campaign to raise funds to support Veterans and their families in need.
In Flanders Fields is a popular poem written by John McCrae and traditionally read at Remembrance Day services to express the tragedy of the losses of war and the importance of carrying on their memories. The final verse states: “Take up your 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.”
Robert Laurence Binyon encourages everyone in his poem For the Fallen.
“At the going down of the sun and in the morning; we will remember them.”