Day Fourteen

Remembrance Sunday

Today we went to church and learned about what all the red poppies we had been seeing people wear every where we went were for.

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 on 11 November. It 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 know as Armistice Day and was renamed Remembrance Day after the Second World War.  Remembrance Sunday is the Sunday closest to November 11th and this year was celebrated on 14/11/10.

With the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq adding increasing numbers to the war memorials, this wasn't just about old time wars but what is happening now and the lost of men and women that families are mourning today.

It was a solemn day, with a two minutes of silence at 11:00a.m. all throughout the country.  It did make me realize that honoring the men and women who have given their lives seems far more important here than I have ever noticed in the US.  Not that they were celebrating war, but after being bombed and living through both world wars they understand the importance and value of the lives lost.  They listed all the men and women who had died in the past year here in the UK, two names jumped out at Robb and I.  Peter Aldridge, 18 and William Aldridge, age 19.  Younger than our own children and who knows maybe one of our distance relatives!

Gave us both something to think about.
Love,
Dawn