Verterans’Day/ Remembrance Day
Verterans’Day, November 11, is a day during which special tribute is paid to persons who served in the armed forces, the veterans.
In the United States, Veterans’ day was formerly called Armistice Day. On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918, World War 1 came to an end. The Americans and their allies had won the war. Germany surrendered and they signed and armistice, or armed truce. This was an order to stop fighting. Hence, the holiday got its name, Armistice Day.
In 1954 the name Armistice Day was changed to Veterans’’ Day. The purpose was to recognize not only veterans of World War 1, but to honor all veterans. The change was to give the holiday a more universal appeal.
In Canada, Armistice Day had originally been celebrated on the same day as Thanksgiving. Since Thanksgiving Day in Canada is in October, the November 11 day was not always remembered as the true Armistice Day. In 1931 the Canadian Parliament changed the name to Remembrance Day and made November 11 an official holiday. It commemorates the end of the two World Wars.
This holiday is a very patriotic time with much flag waving and a renewed spirit of patriotism.
Halloween
Halloween has become a time for merriment rather than a time for serious consideration of magic or mystery. This is a modern development; however, the old custom of dressing up is masquerade costumes and going about the neighborhood asking for candy and other treats on Halloween dates from the seventeenth century. At that time it was believed that witches and ghosts came out on