11/11

[sartorias]

Secret Music

Comments

[aanna_t]

Wow. To think I almost forgot that today was Veterans Day. My deepest thanks to all our veterans.

[sartorias]

I meant to post at the eleventh hour, but family stuff intervened.

[estara]

That is SO WEIRD to me: in Germany the 11th hour and November 11th is traditionally the start of the carnival season that goes until the beginning of February, culminating in various huge parades and shows (on TV, or if it's a local carnival in the local pub or inn).

We do have Veteran's Day or rather Kriegsgräbergedenktag, but it's just not on this date.

[sartorias]

*nod*

I remember.

[estara]

I always associate 11:11 AM on November 11 with carnival, too, though I'm from North Germany and we don't do carnival here. In fact, I didn't know about veteran's/armistice day until I was doing my semester abroad in Britain. We have Volkstrauertag as a memorial for victims of war and tyranny on the second to last Sunday of the church year, i.e. usually the third Sunday in November.

I do mention veteran's/armistice day (and other US or UK holidays) to my students, if it fits into the lesson. This year, I got a fifth grader who told me that his great-grandfather (or great-great-grandfather, he wasn't quite sure) died in WWI.

The Siegfried Sassoon poem reminded me of one of my English professors (and MA thesis adviser). WWI poetry was one of his research interests and he regularly offered a class on WWI poets. I liked that professor a lot, but I never took that particular class, because I had vowed never to read any literature about WWI again after being forced to slog through All Quiet on the Western Front in school.

Cora

[sartorias]

Boy that was one grim book.

[sartorias]

He was an amazing poet.

[sartorias]

He really knew how to punch.