And traditions grow: in Canada placing one’s poppy – the World War One symbol throughout the Commonwealth – on the Grave appears to have developed spontaneously. It’s true that governments have different motives for emphasising this or that, but, if the people do not follow, the memorials fall flat. Tim Cook describes how the memory of the Canadian Corps victory at Vimy Ridge has waxed and waned over the years until today it eclipses everything else. People do remember: in different ways, at different times. The Normandy American Cemetery Visitor Center was opened four years later. The Juno Beach Centre was opened in 2003 – 59 years after the event. D-Day commemorations are larger every year. Since 1947 Oslo has sent a giant Christmas tree for Trafalgar Square.

Since 1945, the Netherlands has sent Ottawa tens of thousands of tulip bulbs in thanks for liberation by the Canadian Army. In 2000 an unidentified body was recovered from one of the Canadian grave sites around Vimy Ridge and interred in a sarcophagus at the National War Memorial in Ottawa with a huge crowd watching. Remembrance Day, celebrated throughout the Commonwealth ( and even in Moscow once) attracts ever-larger crowds in Ottawa. For decades there has been a standing guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington Cemetery. In the USA Memorial Day honors veterans and military graves are tidied and decorated. Including my Great-Uncle Roland Lines ( killed in 1916) and my wife’s Grandfather John Thompson who made it all the way through.īattle of Britain Day is commemorated with flypasts and solemn ceremonies. Through this gate – much rebuilt – passed the majority of British Empire soldiers in the First World War. What you see above is, as I calculate, the 31,237th performance at the moment of writing, it has happened another 401 times and will again tomorrow night. It has been performed every night since 1928 except during the German occupation. This is the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate in Belgium on 18 April 2018.

First published Strategic Culture Foundation under the title “Why Russia’s Victory Day Was Crucial for the Survival of ‘European Values'”

Victory day russia 2019