Remembrance Sunday, the second Sunday in November, is the day traditionally put aside to remember all those who have given their lives for the peace and freedom we enjoy today. On this day people across the nation pause to reflect on the sacrifices made by our brave service men and women.
In 2009 Remembrance Sunday is on Sunday 8th November.
Remembrance Day?
Remembrance Day is on 11 November. It is a special day set aside to remember all those men and women who were killed during the two World Wars and other more recent conflicts. At one time, the day was known as Armistice Day but was renamed after the Second World War.
Remembrance Sunday is held on the second Sunday in November, usually nearest to
11 November. Special services are held at war memorials and churches all over Britain.
A national ceremony takes place at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, London. The Queen lays the first wreath at the Cenotaph.
Wreaths are layed beside war memorials by companies, clubs and societies. People also leave small wooden crosses by the memorials in remembrance of a family member who died in war.
Remembrance Day is also known as Poppy Day, because it is traditional to wear an artificial poppy. They are sold by the Royal British Legion, a charity dedicated to helping war veterans.
The Two Minute Silence:
The First Two Minute Silence in London (11 November 1919) as reported in the Manchester Guardian, 12 November 1919.
'The first stroke of eleven produced a magical effect.The tram cars glided into stillness, motors ceased to cough and fume, and stopped dead, and the mighty-limbed dray horses hunched back upon their loads and stopped also, seeming to do it of their own volition.
Someone took off his hat, and with a nervous hesitancy the rest of the men bowed their heads also. Here and there an old soldier could be detected slipping unconsciously into the posture of 'attention'. An elderly woman, not far away, wiped her eyes, and the man beside her looked white and stern. Everyone stood very still ... The hush deepened. It had spread over the whole city and become so pronounced as to impress one with a sense of audibility. It was a silence which was almost pain ... and the spirit of memory brooded over it all.'