Background 

The week before Remembrance Day I always talk about what it is and we visit website to give them a sense of why it is special and important to be respectful.

To quote the Australian War Memorial Website...

"Remembrance Day (11 November) marks the anniversary of the armistice which ended the First World War (1914–18). Each year Australians observe one minute silence at 11 am on 11 November, in memory of those who died or suffered in all wars and armed conflicts."

On the day in our schoolroom

At 11 am in our schoolroom we have our silence while listening The Last Post bugle call at the link below.  Seeing the kids standing up at their desks with head bent in respect fills me with pride. 

We have actually held a ceremony in the schoolroom some years.  Going through each part in the week leading up so the kids understand each word said.  Get the children involved, older children could read the poems.  They also could make or write about poppies.

Here is the order of the ceremony I use in the schoolroom.

                           
THE ODE

Below is the full poem but usually only the ode is read.

For the fallen

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,

 England mourns for her dead across the sea.

 Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,

 Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal

 Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.

 There is music in the midst of desolation

 And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,

 Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.

 They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,

 They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not 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.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;

 They sit no more at familiar tables at home;

 They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;

 They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,

 Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,

 To the innermost heart of their own land they are known

 As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,

 Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,

 As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,

 To the end, to the end, they remain.

Laurence Binyon (1869–1943)

 The Last Post is one of the bugle calls. Click this link to access it

The Last Post is a custom that has origins dating back over 400 years.   

It signals the end of the day's activities.

A minute of respect and reflection.

This custom dates back to 1919 when it was suggested a period of 5 minutes to honour the sacrifice of those who died in war.

After the silence in a traditional ceremony the flags are raised from half mast.

The Rouse and Reveille is another of the Bugle calls.

The Reveille is much longer than the Rouse.  They actually date back to Roman times.  The Reveille is the custom of waking soldiers.  The Rouse was used to call soldiers to their duties.

On ANZAC Day breaks the silence after the last post symbolising the awakening of the dead for a better world.

Response Lest we forget

While we don't do this we sometimes make paper poppies.

Flowers are laid in memory of the dead.

The Flanders Poppy has been strongly associated with Remembrance Day.  In World War One the poppies were the first plants to spring up in the battlefields in France and Belgium.  At the time it would have looked like the blood that had laid on the ground in the previous years.

Rosemary which symbolises remembrance is popular on ANZAC day.

While in Ypres John McCrae befriended a dog he called Bonneau which accompanied him on his medical rounds.

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 (1872–1918)

I was a killjoy with this facebook status today the 11th of November 2011 ....  

11-11-11 is not really a palindrome because the actual date is 11-11-2011.  I hope everyone is thinking of the Remembrance Day instead and those heroes that fight for the rights of the oppressed and our FREEDOM ----WARNING my killjoy moment

What can I say some days a girls gotta rant especially when very few people even made a status about Remembrance Day.  I have friends in a broad range of ages and more in the under 35 group made reference than over.

Anzac Day and Remembrance Day make me proud to be Australian.  Our diggers fighting for the freedom and the protection of us as a nation and the oppressed across the world.

People often don't think about the fact that every-time you protect something then some thing gets hurt.  If you protect and defend a child from evil then you will hurt yourself and the evil.  In war that means death but don't the unprotected and abused deserve our help?

I have friends in the Armed Forces and I am proud of the fact they protects my right to say and do anything I want.  My right to walk around in a country where bullets are not heard at night.  Their experiences and stories have taught me what a LUCKY country Australia is. Those in government in the last 200 years can be proud of the leadership because they have steered our country into a good positions and even through we WHINE, what we whine about is so superficial compere to other countries.