Remembrance Day 2016, 98 years on.

[mike carey]

The Sydney Opera House marks Remembrance Day (Veterans Day).

[mike carey]

Memorial at the Embassy of the French Republic in Canberra.

"We know the price you paid...France will never forget." @FranceAustralia Remembrance Day ceremony. #LestWeForget

[Whitman]

Remembrance Day 2016, 98 years on.

Thank you for starting this thread, Mike. It is important to stop and remember that there are values and ideals that free people hold dear, rights and privileges that they will fight to preserve for others.

 

Today, Veterans Day here in the U.S., I am thinking of my dad, who left home and school at 17, fought in the Pacific during WWII and was educated later thanks to the GI Bill. He lived a modest life--married, raised a family, owned a small business, never set foot off U.S. soil again--but that service to his country when he was just a kid off the farm was a source of deep pride to him until the day he died. Thank you, Dad, for so many reasons.

 

Remembrance Day is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth of Nations member states since the end of the First World War to remember the members of their armed forces who have died in the line of duty. Following a tradition inaugurated by King George V in 1919,[1] the day is also marked by war remembrances in many non-Commonwealth countries. Remembrance Day is observed on 11 November in most countries to recall the end of hostilities of World War I on that date in 1918. Hostilities formally ended "at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month", in accordance with the armistice signed by representatives of Germany and the Entente between 5:12 and 5:20 that morning.

 

Veterans Day is an official United States public holiday, observed annually on November 11, that honors military veterans; that is, persons who served in the United States Armed Forces. It coincides with other holidays, including Armistice Day and Remembrance Day, celebrated in other countries. The United States previously observed Armistice Day. The U.S. holiday was renamed Veterans Day in 1954.

[mike carey]

Thank you for starting this thread, Mike.

Thanks Whitman. I note that in the photo at the French Embassy, a wreath from the Turkish Embassy is at the front. Turkey has a place second only, perhaps, to New Zealand in our commemoration of wars, even though there were greater sacrifices in other battles, and there are signs saying 'Never forget Australia' in the elementary school in Villers-Bretonneux in France.

[+ WilliamM]

http://ilikevents.com/images/share/event/australian-open/australian-open-melbourne.jpg

 

 

Australian soldiers have fought beside American soldiers often in wars and conflicts --- always with bravery and courage. It is fitting that @mike carey started this thread.

 

For me, Melbourne is as important as Sydney because I attended the Australian Open in Melbourne in 1995.

 

Australia has an amazing tennis history. Australians Roy Emerson and Rod Laver are at the top of the list of Grand Slam winners with Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal, Pete Sampras, and Novak Djokovic.

[+ Charlie]

My mother used to tell us about the original Armistice Day on November 11, 1918. Her father took her into New York that evening for the public celebration, because she was his oldest child (14 at the time) and he thought she was the only one likely to understand and appreciate it. She remembered it vividly for the rest of her life, and marked it 87 more times.