I’m not sure if "Armistice Day" is still widely recognised by the general population in the UK, North America, or in other countries that participated in WWI, 1914-18 [ also known as "The Great War" and “the war to end all wars” as the scale and suffering was unprecedented and grew to involve over 80% of the world ].   But here Down Under, in Australia and in New Zealand, the signing of the armistice in 1918 to end the war (the European theatre, at least), is still commemorated, but tends to now be known as "Remembrance Day", honouring all Service Veterans of all conflicts.
[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armistice_Day ]

The Poppy Sellers can still be found - on the city streets and in country towns, at least - in the days leading up to November 11th. It is unlikely to ever again reach the outpouring of the centenary in 2018, where I among many, many tens of thousands of people - the world over - hand-crafted poppies and delivered them via the local libraries etc, to be inserted into massed displays around the countries and particularly at the memorials to the fallen, extant in every city and town. Fellow Catter and Crafter, Sandra in Sydney, may have done the same!?
[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remembrance_poppy ]

[ Why Poppies? http://www.greatwar.co.uk/poems/john-mccrae-in-flanders-fields.htm ]

The once-common mark of respect - a one (or two) minute's silence at the 11th hour (and where in past times, even the traffic in many places, pulled over and came to a standstill!!!) - is also regaining its place. [on the origins : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-minute_silence ]   
I note that the 10th Maleny Music Festival, being held here next weekend, has The Minute’s Silence built into its program, followed by a presentation of “Songs of Peace and Remembrance”. [ https://www.malenymusicfestival.com/ ]


The remembrance is not glorifying war, as some folks loudly insist. In my case, I think of the grandfather I never got to meet. A man who, like myself, loved reading, poetry and song (and my grandmother!), but who died from the effects of Tuberculosis (contracted whilst he was a medical orderly with the 3rd Austn General Hospital in Abbeville, Abbasia and Lemnos), resulting in my mother and her baby sister, growing up without a father (and their mother without a beloved husband). As it turns out, I had 6 other relatives serving in WWI, but thankfully they all returned to ‘resume’ their peacetime lives. Except for my grandfather, who passed from “The White Plague” (as TB was known), in 1926 and now, all who once knew him are also passed from this world, and while his name is on the cenotaph at Kings Park Botannic Garden, on the hill overlooking Perth in West Aussie,
I have some photos and some books - and some thoughts of what life might have been …........…
[ https://www.flickr.com/photos/peculiarhand/5799286616/in/album-72157626763214889/ ]


The following song was written late last century by my brother-in-law, Noel Gardner, and he dedicates it to a friend of ours who used to live nearby and whose military service had resulted in on-going ill health,
but, as is very sadly often the case, he was treated badly by the Powers-that-Be, once he had returned home.


ARMISTICE DAY ~ Noel Gardner, Nov2007

Silence tolls an hour ‘fore midday on the second-last month of the year
Images flash on the eleventh day, as memories disappear

Now medals hang proudly and tributes flow as politicians push their line
Another year, less truth said, another war to justify

Defend your country the posters read, in the name of national pride
But they don’t defend our soldiers of war, as disease eats them inside

Lying on his back in his hospital bed, he recalls in tales of pain
Denials, whitewash, cover-ups, protect the government’s shame

Chorus
May we remember, lest we forget
But the killings go on in the name of religion
In the hills and the deserts yet

May we remember, lest we forget
But the killings go on in the name of religion
In the hills and the deserts yet


High in the sky, a target is selected from dots on the face of a screen
But the pilot never sees or hears from his cockpit the blood-soaked tears and screams

Out in the field an innocent child, falls prey to clusters of time
Inhumanity, ideology, combines with greed and science
Hide the coffins, distort statistics, don’t let anyone see
Rape for profit, kill for oil, in the name of liberty

Hollow words laced with fear fuel the government’s guise
And in the in the name of deceit, spin and business, another soldier dies

Chorus
May we remember lest we forget
But the killings go on in the name of religion
In the hills and the deserts yet

May we remember lest we forget
But the killings go on in the name of religion
In the hills and the deserts yet

Silence tolls an hour ‘fore midday on the second-last month of the year

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here is a YT video of Noel Gardner and Alex Bridge performing this song, in 2016 :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpvMc5PPw3c



Cheers – and here’s to armistices being sincerely signed, the whole sorry world over.
R-J