How to pay your Remembrance respects this November

Date published: 07 November 2020

Observed by Commonwealth countries, Remembrance Day, also known as Armistice Day, marks the day when World War One ended: at 11am on the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918. Remembrance Sunday takes place annually on the Sunday closest to this date, this year on Sunday (8 November).

We can still show our respect this year despite restrictions. You can take part in remote and socially-distanced Remembrance activity by wearing a poppy, watching the Remembrance services on television or social media and pausing for a two-minute silence at home.

Here, we have listed a few ways that you can pay your Remembrance respects this November.

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Rochdale Borough

A special service paying tribute to the fallen will be streamed on Rochdale council’s Facebook page from 10.50am on Sunday 8 November. It will also be available to view on the council’s YouTube and Twitter pages:

• Facebook: www.facebook.com/rochdalecouncil
• YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCbLo-qPUWTI3zHDYcvGFmnA
• Twitter: twitter.com/RochdaleCouncil

The remembrance service video will feature contributions from veterans, local councillors, the Member of the Youth Parliament, religious leaders and young musicians.

Residents can also send in pictures showing them paying tribute and ‘remembering at home’ to remembrance@rochdale.gov.uk. These will be promoted across the council’s social media channels throughout the day, using the hashtag #rochdaleremembers.

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Whitworth

Whitworth Town Council (along with the rest of Rossendale) plans to commemorate the fallen with a 2-minute doorstep silence this year at 11am. In addition, it will be creating a short film of the Last Post so that you can all join in together and remember at home.

The link to the video will be available on the following event page:

• www.facebook.com/events/359481411872163/

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The Kohima Epitaph

The Kohima Epitaph is the epitaph carved on the Memorial of the 2nd British Division in the cemetery of Kohima (North-East India). It reads:

'When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say,
For Your Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today.'

The verse is attributed to John Maxwell Edmonds (1875-1958), and is thought to have been inspired by the epitaph written by Simonides to honour the Greeks who fell at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480BC.

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Televised events

• Saturday 7 November: Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall, broadcast on BBC One at 9.10pm

• Sunday 8 November: National Act of Remembrance at the Cenotaph, where 145 uniformed Service personnel and 30 veterans will be attending a closed ceremony. The service will be broadcast nationwide on BBC One, Sky and ITV. National two-minute silence at 11.00am.

• Wednesday 11 November: Service to mark the burial of the Unknown Warrior at Westminster Abbey, broadcast live by the BBC. Small wreath-laying event at the Cenotaph (closed ceremony). National two-minute silence at 11.00am.

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Benefice of Littleborough Remembrance Commemorations

Services for Holy Trinity, St Barnabas, Shore and St James, Calderbrook will now be live streamed from church. Below are the YouTube links to the services:

• cofe-littleborough.co.uk/remembrance.html

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Poppy craft ideas by Becky Cranham, PlanBee

Provide your child with an empty plastic bottle. They then dip the bottom of the bottle into the paint and print it onto a piece of paper. Create a poppy picture, or alternatively try putting the poppies in a circle to create a poppy wreath. Children can paint the black centre of each poppy, as well as the green leaves.

 

 

Slightly older children can cut out four or five petal shapes in red felt. Arrange the petals into a poppy shape and pin together. Stick together in the centre with black embroidery thread make the centre of the poppy. Cut out two pieces of green felt in leaf shapes and sew to the back of the poppy. They can then sew or attach a safety pin to the back to create a poppy brooch.

 

 

Provide children with pipe cleaners and red beads. Children can thread the beads onto each of the pipe cleaners, twisting the ends of each one to make a petal shape. Once they have four or five bead petals, bind them together with a piece of black string or ribbon to make a poppy.

Frame their handiwork with black paper or card and hang them in the window to create stained-glass poppy scenes.

 

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Visit your local war memorial

Most towns and cities have a war memorial to commemorate those from the local area who have lost their lives in battle. Pay a socially-distanced visit to yours (it doesn't have to be on Remembrance Day or Remembrance Sunday) and read the inscriptions. Knowing that people from the area in which they live gave their lives in battle will make the concept of Remembrance Day more ‘real’.

Rochdale borough council has also painted special Remembrance poppies near local war memorials with its contractor, Balfour Beatty.

 

 

 

 

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Make Anzac Biscuits

Remembrance Day isn’t just commemorated in the UK. Countries such as Canada, Australia, France, Belgium and the Cayman Islands also dedicate a national day to remember those who fought for their countries.

In Australia and New Zealand, ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) biscuits are traditionally baked and eaten on Remembrance Day. These biscuits were sent by women at home to soldiers who were fighting overseas during World War One. This was because the biscuits did not go stale quickly. Today, these biscuits are eaten as an act of remembrance.

Anzac Biscuits recipe: www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/anzac-biscuits

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The Exhortation

The Exhortation is said on Remembrance Day right after the Last Post is played, and leads into the Two Minute Silence. The Exhortation is an extract from a poem written by Robert Laurence Binyon called "For the Fallen", written in mid-September 1914, just a few weeks after the outbreak of the war.

Early in the war, the British Expeditionary Force had suffered heavy casualties in its first encounter with the German Imperial Army at the Battle of Mons on 23 August. The BEF also joined with the French Army in frustrating the German advance at the First Battle of the Marne between 5 and 9 September 1914, and heavy casualties were suffered there too.

They shall grow not 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.

- The Exhortation

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