November 11th is a national holiday - Remembrance Day - in Canada. At 11am, citizens across Canada stop for two minutes of silence to remember those who died in war. This tradition began in 1919 when King George V sent a message addressed "to all the peoples of the Empire":

To all my people:

Tuesday next, November 11th, is the first anniversary of the armistice which stayed the world-wide carnage of the four preceding years, and marked the victory of right and freedom. I believe that my people in every part of the Empire fervently wish to perpetuate the memory of that great deliverance and of those who laid down their lives to achieve it.
To afford an opportunity for the universal expression of this feeling it is my desire and hope that at the hour when the armistice came into force, the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, there may be for the brief space of two minutes a complete suspension of all our normal activities. During that time, except in the rare cases where this might be impractical, all work, all sound and all locomotion should cease, so that in perfect stillness the thoughts of every one may be concentrated on reverent remembrance of the glorious dead. cenotaph


In Victoria, this day is celebrated by a military parade down Government St. to the grounds of the Legislature where a service of remembrance and wreath laying takes place at the Cenotaph followed by a march past in front of the Empress Hotel.

While banks, schools and many businesses are closed, most attractions, shops and restaurants are open for business.

 

 

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We 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 throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

- John McCrae