11 November is our Remembrance Day in the UK and across the Commonwealth (although many ceremonies take place on the nearest Sunday). This year, celebrations have necessarily been low key and socially distanced, with not even church services allowed. Even the national Act of Remembrance at the Cenotaph was small and muted this year, the Queen choosing to view it from the relative safety of a balcony whilst the younger family members did the wreath-laying.
I made a visit to Saltaire's war memorial, on a damp and foggy day that seemed well suited to the sombre act of thinking about lives cut short, whether by war or coronavirus. There have been too many of them. There was a single poppy wreath laid, though I guess there may be more placed there today.
Prince Charles is here in Germany today to mark the eleventh hour of the eleventh day in Berlin with our Bundespresident Herr Steinmeier. We remember twice: "Volkstrauertag" is our Remembrance Sunday, followed by "Totensonntag" one week later. When I first arrived over 50 years ago I recall seeing a very smart Bundeswehr soldier in the village of Börry guarding just such a war memorial as this. My parents were doubtful about my decision live here until I told them, "Germany today is the safest place on earth; after such a tragedy they have had a more than enough of war".
ReplyDeleteLovely photo. Our foggy wet weather also has given us the sense of grief...even the skies are crying over all the lost ones.
ReplyDeleteThese are strange times we live in. Things were very subdued here today.
ReplyDeleteIt was the same here yesterday, with our national service quite curtailed.
ReplyDeleteLovely Remembrance Day post Jenny 🌺
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