Remembrance Day

What happens on 11th November?

Field of Remembrance, London © WMT, 2012Sacriston, County Durham © NEWMP, 2010

The First World War

The unveiling of the Cenotaph, London 11th November 1920

•Started on 4th August 1914•Ended on 11th November 1918 at 11am

•Over 900,000 serving in the British Army died

•Armistice Day now known as Remembrance Day

• Armistice Day is on 11 November and is also known as Remembrance Day.

• It marks the day World War One ended, at 11am on the 11th day of the 11th month, in 1918.

• A two-minute silence is held at 11am to remember the people who have died in wars.

• There is also Remembrance Sunday every year, which falls on the second Sunday in November.

• This year, it fell yesterday, on Sunday 11 November.

• The anniversary is used to remember all the people who have died in wars - not just World War One.

• This includes World War Two, the Falklands War, the Gulf War, and conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Why do we hold a two-minute silence?• The first two-minute silence in Britain was

held on 11 November 1919, when King George V asked the public to observe a silence at 11am.

• This was one year after the end of World War One.

Why do we wear poppies?The reason poppies are used to remember those who have given their lives in battle is because they are the flowers which grew on the battlefields after World War One ended.

Every year, volunteers make poppies available throughout the country and people make a donation in order to get their poppy.The money raised from these donations is used to help servicemen and women who are still alive, whose lives have been changed by wars that they fought in.

This is described in the famous World War One poem

In Flanders Fields.Ever since then, they have come to

be a symbol of remembering not just those who gave their lives in World

War One, but all those who have died on behalf of their country.

In Flanders fieldsIn Flanders fields the poppies blowBetween the crosses, row on row,That mark our place; and in the skyThe larks, still bravely singing, flyScarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days agoWe 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 throwThe torch; be yours to hold it high.If ye break faith with us who dieWe shall not sleep, though poppies growIn Flanders fields.

One minute silence to mark our respect for those who lost their lives.