Veterans Day

First of all we have to thank all of our veteran's who have kept our country free and serve to help others to freedom as well. We know that freedom is not free.

THANK YOU!
THANK YOU!
THANK YOU!
THANK YOU!

A quick history, what we now call Veterans Day started out many, many years ago as Armistice Day. It marked the day when "The Great War" or World War I ended and the major hostilities were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 with the German signing of the Armistice. Mum says Grampie was just a little wafer when this happened.

Then many years later, when mum was just a little wafer, some beans got together and said the day should be to honor all military veterans. So they changed the name from Armistice Day to Veterans Day. Mum says she remembers being in school and at the 11 hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month. They would stand and face east in a moment of silence.

Other countries may observe the day as Remembrance Day, like in the UK and Canada.

The red poppy has become a familiar emblem of Remembrance Day due to the poem "In Flanders Fields". These poppies bloomed across some of the worst battlefields of Flanders in World War I, their brilliant red color an appropriate symbol for the blood spilled in the war.

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.