Remembrance Day

[loonygloss]

Here in Canada, we observe Remembrance Day on November 11th each year.  It started as a time to remember the cost of the First World War, but has grown to include all the fallen warriors of subsequent conflicts.

I am a sentimental fool, I suppose.  But it does seem fitting to set aside one small time each year to remember and recognize those who gave so that I have the freedoms I enjoy.  The 'rightness' of the conflict is not the issue.  It is the sacrifice.

To share that sentiment, here are two wonderful songs.

First, Eric Bogle's "The Green Fields of France", also known as "No Man's Land".  The recording here.  The sound is deliberately poor (so as to encourage us all to buy it) but is rather moving nonetheless, as it is sung in two languages.  I prefer to hear John McDermott's version, myself, only because of his incredible voice.

Second, Terry Kelly's "Pittance of Time" in the video here is a reminder that even now, they deserve our respect.
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Here in Australia we also observe Armistice Day on the 11/11 11:00am, in addition to ANZAC day on the 25th of April. Every school I know of observes it with a minute's silence, and a stanza from the poem "For the Fallen" by Laurence Binyon:

They shall not grow 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.

Lest we forget.