eldin raigmore wrote: ↑12 Nov 2020 00:28
eldin raigmore wrote: ↑06 Nov 2020 07:25sangi39 wrote: ↑05 Nov 2020 21:42(just moved your post here, Eldin. Didn't seem to warrant its own thread, but to the point...)
Guy Fawkes Day, as a sole holiday, didn’t warrant a thread by itself in my opinion.
I thought maybe all holidays, in general, would.
Veterans' Day and Singles' Day
In the USA and I guess about 12 countries strongly affected by the First World War (including Canada, UK, and Australia, IIANM), today is Veterans' Day.
On 11/11 at 11, or 11:11, or 11:11:11, we do something to celebrate the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month; to celebrate the eleventh-hour escape of Civilization from some disaster, and the veterans who participated in helping us escape.
I suppose in future we might include the globe's escape from this pandemic, or from climate change.
Not including the UK, now, and I don't believe Australia or Canada either.
Here, the same day is marked, but, at least in the UK, as "Remembrance Day". Although veterans are inevitably a part of the concept, the focus is not on veterans, or even on escape/victory, but on the remembrance of loss and sacrifice. [the role of veterans is a matter of low-level but perennial discontent: the government and the far right always want more emphasis on the military, whereas the left and most civil society groups tend to want more emphasis on civilians and the bereaved and so forth). Instead of "doing something", we do nothing: there's a national two minutes of silence at 11. And of course the national ceremony of tracking down and yelling obscenities and death threats and anyone who'se not wearing the Poppy.
The bigger ceremony is on Remembrance Sunday instead; this is the nearest Sunday to Remembrance Day. It's when the national remembrance ceremony at the Cenotaph takes place, and many local ceremonies, although some do happen on Remembrance Day itself. There's also a second (or first, in some years) two minutes' silence on Remembrance Sunday, but this is less observed and less societally important - largely, I think, because it's not inconvenient. The two minute's silence on the 11th itself is generally observed at schools and very often in workplaces, making it unavoidable, whereas the one on the Sunday happens just before Sunday lunch, and is easily overlooked if you don't have the radio or the television on at the time. [there's also usually a minute's silence at the start of the Premiership matches that weekend]
Remembrance Day is sometimes still referred to as Armistice Day, perhaps in part to distinguish it from Remembrance Sunday. The 2018 Remembrance Day was widely referred to as Armistice Day, for obvious reason.
New Labour attempted to introduce a Veteran's Day, as part of rallying support behind their Afghan and Iraqi wars. It's still around, but it's now called Armed Forces' Day, and most people don't really pay attention to it.