Armistice, Veterans and Remembrance Days...all have their genesis at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918, the moment the shelling ceased and The Great War, the War to End All War, came to a close. Twenty million dead. Another twenty million wounded, many maimed for life. One hundred years ago, to the hour, the world fooled itself into believing that it would never again be so foolish as to allow humanity to fight another world war, nor would it have believed back then that next time around the casualty count would be so many times higher.
This year i experienced my first Canadian Remembrance Day after living the previous 60 years as an American observing Veterans Day. What i discovered was this...
There are some subtle and some not so subtle differences in the way Canadians attend to this day.
Firstly it's not just a single day. Canadians begin wearing the poppy soon after Halloween. Donning a poppy in remembrance has been a tradition here since the early 1920s, the idea born out of the famous poem In Flanders Fields by Canadian physician Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae. Thoughts of military service and sacrifice are therefore on everyone's minds a good ten days before the actual holiday. Even if you have not bought a plastic red poppy from an old, medal-laden veteran sitting at the entrance to the local supermarket you are sure to run into someone who has and can't help but be reminded regularly of the day's coming.
I don't want to necessarily dis the American counterpart of Veterans Day here, but clearly this level of thought and solemn practice has not seeped into the American psyche in nearly the same manner. Yes, we have our ceremonies in the States. Wreaths are laid, guns might fire in soldierly salute at military cemeteries (even if our President has some problems with attendance) and folks are usually polite enough to thank a veteran for their service when they make it known, either in person or on social media. Though more often than not it seems closer to a reflexive gesture, like passing someone on the street and asking "How you doing?" when you really haven't the time nor inclination to stick around for an answer. We mark the day and then we go shopping, because, you know, you can get a really great deal on that La-Z-Boy at the Furniture Fair sale after the graveyard service and it should get delivered just in time for lounging about in a tryptophanic stupor while watching the Turkey Bowl on TV after an overindulgent Thanksgiving dinner.
I believe Remembrance Day sales would simply be considered abhorrent in Canada. Many business are not even open on the day. And entire communities come forth to lay wreaths for their loved ones at memorials, not just government officials and pundits. One by one they step forward...to remember the dead, to honor their service and heroism, but not to glorify it or the bloody wars themselves or make gaudy displays of military might and authority. Yes, i am thinking of that big Veterans Day Parade Mr. Trump had envisioned for Washington, D.C. this year that is now thankfully postponed until at least 2019.
I am also thinking about the American experience in general and how we as children were raised in the notion and desensitized to the sheer horror that is war. The endless Hollywood films that romanticize the fight, the brave boys and the noble cause. How much easier is this when the wars are so rarely fought on our own soil? Does how we are as nation are culturally informed about war not make it far too easy for us to accept it as an inevitable and constant state of our existence? Perhaps if we spent more time focussed on loss and remembrance we might be less inclined to simply shrug at the next military incursion abroad, less willing to accept sending our boys and girls into harm's way for reasons never clearly explained or fully understood.
So this, my first Remembrance Day, was spent with the good people of the town of Mahone Bay, NS. A church service at St. James Anglican Church was followed by a wreath laying at the cenotaph in the center of town. Officials, families, brothers in arms, all came forth to lay wreaths and crosses at the town's memorial to those local boys who gave their lives in the Great War, marking that day, that very hour, a full century ago, that all had hoped would be the very last time we would have to silence the guns of war and bury our dead children. A day to remember, lest we forget.
(please click on images for an enlarged gallery view)
Sgt. at Arms for the Royal Canadian Legion Colour Guard, Chris Racine reflects during a service at St. James Anglican Church.
Chris Racine displays a chestful of medals while attending to his Legion duties at the church service.
Royal Canadian Legion Members Yvonne Rose, Lenora Begin and Hellen Whitehouse listen as clergy speak during services at St. James Anglican Church.
Lutheran Pastor Adam Snook leads a portion of the service at St. James Anglican Church as guest clergy.
Barbara Minard, serving as an honorary assistant, sings along with a hymn.
Reverend Sherrolyn Riley from the United Baptist Church was in attendance as guest clergy.
Anniemae and David Waterbury rise to sing a hymn during the service at St. James Anglican Church. David was an Air Force navagator who was shot down over Norwegian waters during WWII and spend hours in raft before finally being captured.
Mahone Bay Mayor David Devenne and his wife Julie sing a hymn along with the congregation.
Members of the Royal Canadian Legion, Branch 49, kneel in prayer during services at St. James Anglican Church.
Chris Racine stands with other members of the Royal Canadian Legion Colour Guard in St. James Anglican Church as Legion Service Officer Gary Silliker reads tha names of local soldiers killed in action.
A lone trumpeter sounds off after the reading from the pulpit of the names of local war dead during services at St. James Anglican Church.
Barry Heisler leads the Royal Canadian Legion Colour Guard out of St. James Anglican Church at the end of the service.
Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Emily Knock holds a guard position at the cenotaph during the ceremony.
Royal Canadian Navy Captain Alex Grant is a recent transplant to the area.
Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Emily Knock stands at her guard post at the cenotaph.
Barbara Minard holds a wreath that she will lay for her fallen husband.
Krista and Alex Grant are from Halifax where Alex is a Royal Canadian Navy Captain, but they attended the Mahone Bay ceremony since they will soon be moving to Martins River.
Barbara Minard holds a wreath which she will lay for her dead husband.
The Royal Canadian Legion Colour Guard lead a parade to the cenotaph.
The first wreath is laid for Canada.
A family member approaches the cenotaph to lay a wreath.
Two boys lay a wreath at the base of the cenotaph.
Sgt. at Arms Chris Racine and the Royal Canadian Legion Colour Guard hold a line during the wreath laying ceremony.
Veterans and families watch as wreaths are laid at the base of the cenotaph.
Local Cub Scouts march from the cenotaph to Legion Hall after the ceremony.
Poppies adorn a wreath at the base of the cenotaph.
All Photos ©David Sorcher 2018
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.
~John McCrae~
