Everything about Remembrance Sunday totally explained
In the
United Kingdom,
Remembrance Sunday is the second Sunday of November, the Sunday nearest to
11 November (
Remembrance Day), which is the anniversary of the end of the hostilities of the
First World War at 11 a.m. in 1918.
Remembrance Sunday is marked by ceremonies at local war memorials in most towns and villages, attended by civic dignitaries, ex-servicemen and women (principally the
Royal British Legion), youth organisations (for example
Scouts and
Guides), and military cadet forces (for example
Air cadets,
Army cadets and
Sea cadets). Wreaths of
poppies are laid on the memorials and two-minutes' silence is held at 11 a.m.
National ceremony
The national ceremony is held at the
Cenotaph on
Whitehall,
London and since 2005 the women's memorial is also included. Wreaths are laid by the
Queen, the
Duke of Edinburgh, the
Prince of Wales,
Duke of York, the
Princess Royal, the
Duke of Kent and
William of Wales; the
Prime Minister, leaders of major political parties, the Foreign Secretary, the Commonwealth High Commissioners and representatives from the
Army,
Navy and the
Royal Air Force, the
Merchant Navy and fishing fleets and the Civilian Services. A two minutes'
silence is held at 11 a.m., before the laying of the wreaths. The silence represents the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in
1918 the guns of Europe fell silent. This silence is marked by the firing of a field gun on
Horse Guards Parade to begin and end the silence, followed by
Royal Marines buglers, playing the
Last Post.
The event consists mainly of an extensive march past, with army bands playing live music, each year following the list of the Traditional Music of Remembrance (see below).
Other members of the
British Royal Family watch from the balcony of the
Foreign Office.
After the Ceremony, a parade of veterans, organised by the Royal British Legion, marches past the Cenotaph, each section of which lays a wreath as it passes.
Television coverage
The Ceremony has been televised each year by the
BBC since 1946. It is the joint-longest running live televised annual event in the world, the record being shared with the
Chelsea Flower Show. When first shown in 1937, it was the second ever live outside event to be broadcast, the first being the Coronation procession of
George VI earlier that year.
The 1947
telerecording of the ceremony is the oldest surviving record of a broadcast of a live outside event.
Other ceremonies
From 1919 until 1945, Remembrance ceremonies were held on
Armistice Day; observance was then moved to Remembrance Sunday, but, since the 50th anniversary of the end of the
Second World War in 1995, it has become usual to hold ceremonies on both
Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday.
On Remembrance Sunday in 1987, a
bomb exploded by the
Provisional IRA killed 11 people and injured 63 in
Enniskillen (see
Remembrance Day Bombing).
In 2006,
Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown proposed that in addition to Remembrance Sunday, a new national day to celebrate the achievements of veterans should be instituted. The "Veterans Day", to be held in the summer, would be similar to
Veterans Day celebrations in the United States.
It is a polite custom to wear poppies on Remembrance Sunday. Paper poppies are sold in the weeks before the day by the
Royal British Legion, in order to raise money to support ex-servicemen.
Traditional music
Each year, the programme of music at the National Ceremony remains the same, as follows:
Other pieces of music are then played during the unofficial wreath laying and the march past of the veterans, starting with
Trumpet Voluntary.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Remembrance Sunday'.
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