Remembrance Day 2017

Remembrance Day 2017 will be held on Saturday 11 November and will mark 99 years since the signing of the armistice that officially saw the end of the First World War in 1918. The students and staff of Holy Cross College marked this occasion on Friday 10 November with a service on the College Boulevard at 11.00am around the flag poles, observing a minute’s silence, praying for the courage of the dead and wounded across all wars.

The first Remembrance Day was conducted in 1919 throughout the Commonwealth. Originally called Armistice Day, it commemorated the end of hostilities (the signing of the armistice) which occurred on 11 November 1918. It came to symbolise the end of the war and provide an opportunity to remember those who died.

According to the Department of Veterans' Affairs, "After the end of World War II, the Australian and British governments changed the name to Remembrance Day. Armistice Day was no longer an appropriate title for a day which would commemorate all war dead.”

"In October 1997, the Governor-General issued a proclamation declaring 11 November as Remembrance Day and urging Australians to observe one minute's silence at 11.00 am on Remembrance Day each year to remember the sacrifice of those who died or otherwise suffered in Australia's cause in wars and war-like conflicts."

Junior School students made poppies to reflect on the significance of the sacrifice made by our soldiers. The story of the poppy as a symbol of remembrance is steeped in history.

During the First World War (1914–1918) much of the fighting took place in Western Europe. Previously beautiful countryside was blasted, bombed and fought over, again and again. The landscape swiftly turned to fields of mud: bleak and barren scenes where little or nothing could grow.

Bright red Flanders poppies however, were delicate but resilient flowers and grew in their thousands, flourishing even in the middle of chaos and destruction. In early May 1915, shortly after losing a friend in Ypres, a Canadian doctor, Lt Col John McCrae was inspired by the sight of poppies to write a now famous poem called 'In Flanders Fields'.

In Flanders Field

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.

McCrae’s poem inspired an American academic, Moina Michael, to make and sell red silk poppies which have become a symbol of remembrance and are often sold to raise funds to assist war veterans with housing and wellbeing services.

Tomorrow, Saturday 11 November 2017, we encourage all members of the Holy Cross College community to pause for a minute’s silence at 11.00am to remember the ultimate sacrifice of the brave men and women who fought so that we can be free and enjoy the riches of our peaceful and lucky country.

Lest we forget.