Armistice Day (aka Remembrance Day)

I think that maybe the one thing I actually miss the most about high school isn't my friends, my teachers, the structure, the uniform, the familiarity, it's the Remembrance Day ceremony that Beaconhills had every year. The entire school assembled in the only area that could fit us all, the junior and middle schools in the hot sun of November under hats and their blazers while the senior school got the relative coolness of the shade.

It's not the speeches, the memories or the knowledge shared with us, it's that one minute of complete and utter silence.

Over 1,500 people, the great majority of whom are children (many below the age where they are truly able to understand what Remembrance Day means), totally silent. From 11:00 on the 11th of November there is silence in a school where there is usually no such thing. I don't mean to say that what I love about Remembrance Day is that it's finally quiet. What I love is that for one minute, everyone is thinking about the same thing, about those people who fought and died to ensure that we can live the way we do today.

It may be slightly morbid but I love it, and the song the Last Post in particular. What this one piece of music evokes in people all over this country when they hear it. It's sombre but every time it's heard it reminds us of how lucky we are, and how thankful we should be for those that went to war for us, whether the war was "just" or not.

I think it's so unbelievably important that we pay homage to all the men and women who have fought and died in the many wars that have been fought. It's nowhere near enough to just dedicate one minute  a year to this but in it's consistency, it's a start and I have no doubt that there are people who are personally affected by these wars who think about this every minute of every day.

Lest We Forget.

Just pay your respects guys, at least on this day, it’s the least we can do.

 'The 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'

- For the Fallen, Lauren Binyon (1931)