What other countries have a recognition day (whether called “Memorial/ Remembrance/ Decoration/ etc.”) for their veteran and armed forces members, and when?
In the UK, 11th November is Armistice Day - not a national holiday, but well-recognised. The nearest Sunday is designated Remembrance Sunday, originally representing the two world wars, but since including/embracing/hijacked by (insert ideology here) all subsequent conflicts involving Britain. The near-universal symbol of the day are red (paper) poppys, sold by the British Legion (the main veteran’s organisation).
Traditionally, the two-minute-silence was done at 11am on the Sunday; in recent years, it’s being done on Armistice Day itself - a sensible PR move, because nobody ever realised when it was 11 on the Sunday morning, and if they did they were slouched on the sofa watching the special service at St Pauls.
Remembrance day is the same in Canada as in Britain, the ‘eleventh day of the eleventh month at the eleventh hour’. Except in Britain I assume they don’t have at least one reading of In Flanders’ Fields by John McCrae. I still ike that poem, in spite of hearing it over and over.
It’s the day for remembering both the World Wars. It’s widely observed.
The one notable tradition, at the service held at the Cenotaph (normally attended by the Queen and heads of all main political parties, among others), is the playing of “When I am laid in earth…”, from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. It is such an incredibly powerful piece, and so very appropriate for the occasion.
In Australia and New Zealand the main day of remembrance for deceased members of the armed forces, veterans etc. is Anzac Day (25 April). The day itself commemorates the landing of the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps (hence ANZAC) at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915 during WWI.
In Australia and NZ we also observe Remembrance or Armistice Day on the 11th hour of 11th November. It is not a national holiday but a minutes silence is observed.
We also have ANZAC Day which is celebrated on the 25th April to mark the anniversary of the landing of the ANZACs at Gallipoli. It is the day the people of Australia and New Zealand honour the fallen and the surviving servicemen and women who proudly march through the streets.
Same in France : November 11 is also the armistice day and more generally the veteran day. In towns, there’s a military ceremony taking place at the local monument to the fallen (even the smallest villages have such a monument, generally with the names of all the locals killed in wars since WWI engraved on it ), in little villages, the mayor used to read publically this list (“dead on the field of honor”, according to french terminology), in the presence of the local veterans. I don’t know if it’s still done, but I suppose it is. It’s also a full national holiday.
May 8 is also a national holiday, and ceremonies are organized too.
Norway has no specific equivalent to Memorial Day, but on May 8, Liberation Day, there are ceremonies and wreath-layings to commemorate the fallen of World War II. And this means all of the fallen, including for instance Resistance activists who were executed.
Some important differences: Flags are of course flown, but at full-staff. It is a day of remembrance, but not of mourning. Also, it’s not a day off, schools and offices are open as usual and so forth.
Celebrations on the 17th of May, Constitution Day, also include honoring the war dead, although that’s a fairly minor part of the day.
(Norway was neutral during WWI, so the 11th of November has no special meaning here.)
There is the same situation in the UK. Every town and village has a ( usually ) stone memorial to the fallen from both world wars. On Remembrance Sunday you will see a small procession made up of veterans , scouts and army cadets march to the memorial and lay wreaths , usually consisting of red poppies.
Ten or fifteen years ago in Canada, you used to see op-ed pieces in November about how Remembrance Day would die out with the passing of the vets. That hasn’t been happening - attendance at Remembrance Day ceremonies has actually been increasing over the past decade, with more and more families bringing out their children. The ongoing conflicts no doubt have something to do with it, but it’s an interesting phenomenon. I think the remembrance also got a bit of a boost a few years ago when the federal government finally created an unknown soldier’s memorial at the Cenotaph in Ottawa.
Also, in Canada this is one of the few holidays that isn’t jiggered to produce a long weekend - Remembrance Day is always on November 11, regardless of what day of the week the 11th falls on. It’s too important to be used just to get an extra Monday off. (Sorry if that sounds snarky to the British approach.)
Like the Brits, we also have the poppy.
Strangely enough, the WWI symbolic flower in France is the blue cornflower.
Veterans and the War Memorial and the poppy and the poem are also on the back of the Canadian $10 banknote.