Written by: Samuel Chapman, 12
We are well into the Holiday season. Christmas lights appeared like a festive rash over the cityscape as early as October. We’ve had Halloween on October 31st and Diwali on November 3rd, and Hanukkah and Thanksgiving are rapidly approaching on November 28th and November 27th, respectively. Mazel tov. And yet one important date has somehow slipped us by. Remembrance Day falls on November 11th every year, and it marks the signing of the armistice which brought to an end the hostilities of the First World War. It is a day of reflection and of solemn patriotism.
On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, people all around the world spare two minutes to honour the sacrifices made in the line of duty not only by the soldiers who fought in the First World War, but by all soldiers in all wars. Many wear a poppy to commemorate this holiday, which some of you may have noticed throughout the first week and a half of this month.
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Our Superintendent David Toze, who sported one of these sober little red flowers, says that although remembering is important, Remembrance Day ceremonies do not have a place in ISM. Mr. Toze explains that the choice of November 11th as a day of remembrance commemorates the ending of a conflict which was “largely European”. He goes on to say that “even in Europe, [Remembrance Day] is something that is controversial”. He is not wrong. In 2011, British journalist Robert Fisk published an article titled, “Do those who flaunt the poppies on their lapels know that they mock the war dead?” in which he examined the perversion of the symbolism of the poppy. Remembrance Day and the requisite poppy pin are sometimes criticised as a glorification of war. Whether or not this is the case is a matter of opinion.
Nonetheless, Mr. Toze makes the point that the imposition of Remembrance Day commemorations “undermines any value of the ceremony”. This is a pertinent point, and one from which we can draw an important lesson: remembrance must be self-driven. A school may be able to make two hundred students stand in silence for two minutes, but there is no way to make two hundred students reflect on the events of a war that happened almost a century ago. But just because we are not obliged to reflect does not mean that we should not. Read some Rupert Brooke or some Wilfred Owen. There is a great cadre of literature that might make less distant the muddied battlefields of northern France. But do take some time to remember, lest we forget.
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