Hmm. Every school child attends one every November 11th. This year, as the oldest kids in the school, my class is responsible for running it. "In Flanders Fields" is absolutely essential to this ceremony. I've never been to one that did not include that poem. I first learned it by heart when I was about nine, and can still do it word-perfect; the phrasing and intonation I taught my kids today were the same I was taught twenty years ago by Mr. Henderson. We'll also have my brother, a corporal in the Reserves, in to play The Last Post and Reveille on his cornet. We'll have the two minutes of silence.
I can't even imagine school without this ceremony. It's been a part of my culture my entire life.
I think it's mostly a Canadian thing, sadly -- though I've been to the MacRae clan seat (Eilean Donan castle) and his name is prominent on a plaque as the poet who wrote In Flanders Fields, which leads me to believe that the Scots, if not all of Britain, at least are familiar with it.
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Date: 2004-11-04 07:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-04 09:48 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-04 10:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-05 01:23 am (UTC)I can't even imagine school without this ceremony. It's been a part of my culture my entire life.
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Date: 2004-11-05 03:57 am (UTC)