(bernardinodandrade@gmail.com)
Rememberance Sunday
A couple from the UK who attended Mass here at the Chapel two weeks ago during their holiday in Madeira, told me about a special day that is celebrated in the UK every year in November. I asked Yvonne to write me something about this special day called “Rememberance Sunday”. Yvonne told me that Remembrance Day/Sunday is a big event in the UK and people hold the tradition, and what it stands for, very dear to their hearts. At 11am, during this mass, there will be 2 minutes of silence, just as there is in the UK today.
Love and Peace,
Fr. Bernardino Andrade
PS. I asked Yvonne to write something about this day for the newsletter. Here is what she sent me:
Remembrance Sunday (10.11.19)
Remembrance Sunday – a day for private and public recollection.
The origins of Remembrance Sunday celebrations lie deep within the First World War.
The history of Remembrance Sunday.
The end of the First World War came with Armistice Day, which is now honoured with our Remembrance Day celebrations. Arms were laid down at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the year, an arbitrary moment chosen to end the four years of turmoil that had spread across Europe, but a moment that has become embedded in everyone’s consciousness since then. Remembrance Day is now an instantly recognisable date. Remembrance Sunday ever since has commemorated and celebrated the contribution to the war effort and victory made by British and Commonwealth troops, not only in the First World War but in the many conflicts, small and large since. The Queen and royal family, politicians, the man and woman in the street all take part in marking Remembrance Sunday.
When and where Remembrance Sunday is celebrated.
Across Britain, Remembrance Day falls on the second Sunday in November, the nearest Sunday to November 11th. From the main ceremonies at London’s Whitehall Cenotaph to small village greens across the United Kingdom, parades and church services take place to mark Remembrance Sunday. Nations of the Commonwealth, from Australia to the other side of the globe, also hold their own Remembrance Day celebrations honouring their dead from the conflicts of the World Wars.
How Remembrance Sunday is celebrated.
Wearing a red poppy is the most immediately recognisable mark of Remembrance Day. Parades and processions, ending with wreaths of poppies being laid at Cenotaphs and memorials across the length and breadth of the land are used to mark Remembrance Day. Starting at 11 a.m. on Remembrance Day a two minute silence is held, creating an unforgettable impression when the thousands of people in London to the few score in a small village all fall silent. This silence reminds us of when the guns across Europe fell silent. Veteran soldiers down to young children all take part in, or watch, the parades and processions, the military march pasts and the bands that mark this very special day, Remembrance Day.
‘Let Us Remember Them’
The First World War was meant to be, “the war to end all wars” – it never did. As all nationalities come together here in beautiful Madeira, during our two minutes silence, let us remember all who have lost their lives and those who suffer, in war and conflict, across the world.