‘Observing Remembrance Day: a personal reflection‘, The Drum (ABC ), 11 November 2011
The author discusses the significance of 11 November. There were 28 reader comments.
Remembrance Day has always tended to concentrate more on the suffering and waste than the glorification and heroism of our fallen. This used to be the primary focus of Anzac Day – and still is at the Dawn Service – before the holiday emerged to become more a symbol of nationalist pride and celebration, with all its jingoism and its heroic drinking and sporting rituals.
By contrast, Remembrance Day is observed in just one moment’s silent reflection, in the course of an otherwise ordinary day, in the belief that if done properly and reverentially this will be sufficient to the purpose.
A related piece is here and the author’s 2012 Remembrance Day piece, relating Remembrance Day to the war in Afghanistan, is reprinted here.
