MonkeyPants

Remembrance

Yesterday on the bus, a guy thanked the bus driver, and then said, “Happy Remembrance Day” the same way you’d say “Merry Christmas”.  I almost charged off the bus behind him to correct him.

Remembrance Day is not a happy holiday, I wanted to tell him. It is about remembering the dead. It is about honoring the fallen and, by extension, giving support to those who fight the just fight.

It’s not about anything bright or jolly or merry. It is a solemn day to mark the fact that untold numbers of brave people have laid, and do lay down their lives to fight greed and chaos and evil.

We remember that people just like us, but braver, or maybe just as brave as we would be in their situations, have stepped up in the face of that which is wrong, and said, “No. We do not accept that. We will fight against that. ” Remembrance Day is to remember them, and to honour them.

Not a happy holiday at all, bus guy.