Skip to main content
Go back

The Armistice Ceremony

Black and white photograph. In the centre, 12 servicemen in uniform form an honour guard before two servicemen in kilts flanking a man in civilian clothes , holding a flag. Behind them are some 50 dignitaries and spectators. In the background, a few trees, the street and buildings.

Date: November 7, 1937

Source: Photo: Conrad Poirier. Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ) – P48,S1,P1534  https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/2836542 

Here is a photograph, dated November 7, 1937, of the ceremony at the cenotaph during the Armistice Day (now Remembrance Day) commemorations in Verdun. Servicemen form an honour guard before two kilted members of the Black Watch (The Royal Highland Regiment of Canada). Since 1919, two minutes of silence has been observed at 11 a.m. during Remembrance Day ceremonies. An important tradition that lives on to the present day.

In Canada, from 1919 to 1920, Remembrance Day was celebrated on the second Sunday of November. Then for 10 years, from 1921 to 1931, it was celebrated on the first Monday of November. Since then, it has always been celebrated on November 11. In the 1920s, the event was paired with Thanksgiving and was not a big public event. Since the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War, in 1995, the commemorations have been larger and elicit greater public interest. 

In 2019, it seems that the Verdun Legion was the only branch in Canada to organize a parade on the last Sunday before Armistice Day.