Guy Gorton wrote:
On Sun, 13 Jan 2008 07:21:07 -0000, "'Mike'"
wrote:




"Fuschia" wrote in message
...

I am very much in favour of Remembrance for the fallen.
However it seems to me from the commercial support for the petition
that this is being used as an excuse, a label, for just another
public holiday. It will be used as an excuse for various commercial,
consumer-oriented activities that have nothing to do with
Remembrance.

Christmas and Easter are bank holidays because they are religious
festivals, but only a minority use them to go to church. The
majority use them as an opportunity for parties. If we have a
Remembrance day off work, I believe the majority will also use that
for parties. Is that what we want?



Well said. That is why I will not sign the petition

Mike

I am old enough to remember Armistice Day observance in the late 1930s
and early 40s because my father had been wounded in the first world
war and felt deeply about Armistice Day.
It always happened on 11 Nov at 11 am and that fixed time was its
great strength. It was the way that virtually everything stopped for
those two minutes which made a huge impression - there were parades
and services but it was the almost universal observance of the 2
minutes silence no matter what was otherwise happening that mattered
most. Shops stopped, cars stopped, even buses, but not trains
although a station departure would be delayed.
Turn that into a day off and nobody will observe that crucial two
minutes silence.
Just to touch on another part of this thread, the Remembrance Day
service at the war memorial in my small town has been attended by
increasing numbers in recent years and all ages are present.

My eyes were opened by reading this book:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Soldier-Neil.../dp/038560453X

The section on national grief and rememberance in the 20's/30's humbled me.