It's November, and once again Canadians from all corners wear a bright red poppy in remembrance of Canada's War Dead.
So many of us take this annual ritual for granted. Given the passage of time, it's easy to miss the fact that many Canadians have little social context to explain the event.
In August 1914, war broke out on continental Europe, involving virtually every nation in the region. It eventually spread to involve virtually every nation on the globe.
During the 1,534 days of what became known as the Great War, more than 11 million people lost their lives. Most, but not all, were active service personnel, soldiers, sailors and aviators.
History records great battles - 2nd Ypres, (where the first gas attacks were launched against Canadian forces), the Somme, Passchendaele, Gallipoli, the Marne, and countless other actions.
Less well known is the daily casualty rate, averaging 2,000 per day for the entire duration of the war, known as "wastage."
By 1918, Germany was starving, her navy in mutiny. France was virtually bled white, her army having mutinied in 1917.
This left the armies of the British Empire to struggle to the ultimate collapse of the German army during the last hundred days of the war.
During this period, Canada, Australia and New Zealand's land forces were the effective strength of the Empire.
Recognizing the futility of further conflict, a German delegation entered the Foret de Compeigne in French territory on Nov. 5, and finally, at 5:40 a.m. on Nov. 11, an armistice was signed by all parties.
This ended the fighting but not the war.
(The Treaty of Versailles accomplished that end, signed in June 1919).
The armistice called for "hostilities to cease at the eleventh hour." Thus Nov. 11 at 11 a.m. (the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month) gained eternal significance.
The butcher's bill of the war was beyond comprehension. Each life was a real life lost, captured by John McRae's In Flanders Fields, saying "We are the Dead. Short days ago we lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow; loved and were loved..."
Ordinary people, lost in the furnace of history; lives unlived, love ungiven, children unborn. For Canada, more than 60,000 young souls were lost on the battlefields of Europe
and Asia, and in the oceans around the world.
To reconcile this loss through public observance, King George V commissioned Armistice Day in 1919, and the first such event was held at Buckingham Palace that same year.
Armistice Day was practised in Canada from 1921 to 1930, when an Act of Parliament created Remembrance Day, on Nov. 11 of each year.
And so, across the nation this coming Monday, people will gather at local memorials and cenotaphs to observe Remembrance Day.
Do not consider this a glorification of war; it is not. Nor consider it an homage to militarism; it is nothing of the sort.
It is a chance to gather together as a common people, and remember the lives lost; period. More than 100,000 Canadians dead, in service to us all.
During the service on Monday, you will hear the Act of Remembrance: "They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old; age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them."
At that point, please repeat: "We will remember them."
Matthew McBride is the Chair of the Richmond Remembrance Day Committee.
