Thank you, veterans
Veterans' Day is, of course, today. It is also the day created to celebrate the end of World War One. On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918, the armistice went into effect. (Eleventh hour of which time zone? Wherever you happened to be, I suppose.) Armistice Day became a holiday in the '20s and eventually changed to Veterans' Day because . . . because it seemed like a good idea.
For some reason, I thought Memorial Day celebrated the end of World War Two, but I was quite wrong. It's a Civil War holiday, started in 1868. We have V-E Day and V-J Day and D-Day, but those don't hold the same cachet as Veterans' Day or Memorial Day. They just don't make holidays like they used to.
5 comments:
Thanks for the brief history lesson, professor Sotosoroto
:)
Yo, Soto! I just read that today is Poland's Independence Day (1918). How did you miss that?
And I am assuming that you knew, but chose not to mention because it was off topic, that this is day that Washington became a state, forever to be confused with Washington the city. Maybe they should have named the state after the Columbia River, but no, that would be confusing with the District of Columbia. Oh, well.
I have Polish Independence Day on my calendar as well, but I didn't mention it because, well, I didn't mention Remembrance Day either.
And actually, no I didn't know today was Statehood Day here. Roll on, Columbia!
I tried to sing "Roll On, Columbia" in my head, but the tune that came out was "Bow Down to Washington." Same thing, I suppose. (-;
The holiday acquired its present name and broadened significance in the U.S. in 1954. In Canada it is known as Remembrance Day, and in the United Kingdom, as Remembrance Sunday
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