November 8, 2012
A day to pause and remember
Ceremonies on campus, throughout Waterloo Region, and across the country honour Canada's war dead.
The Waterloo community, along with the rest of the country, will pause to remember Canada's war dead on Sunday, November 11, at 11:00 a.m.
Though Remembrance Day falls on a weekend this year, it will be recognized on campus on Friday, with the Engineering Society organizing a ceremony that takes place in the foyer of Carl Pollock Hall at 10:50 a.m. The ceremony will last approximately half an hour.
As national leaders mark the occasion in Ottawa, local dignitaries will place wreaths at the Cenotaph beside Waterloo City Hall on Regina Street, and veterans will parade, in a ceremony that starts at 10:15 a.m.
Ceremonies will also be held at 10:55 a.m. at the Kitchener Cenotaph on Frederick Street, at 10:45 a.m. at the Cenotaph on Queen's Square a block from the Architecture Building in Cambridge, and at the Cenotaph in downtown Stratford at 10:45 a.m.
On campus, an act of remembrance will be included in Renison University College's Sunday mass at 10:30 a.m.
The official date of the Remembrance Day commemoration is always November 11, the anniversary of the day in 1918 when the guns fell silent at the end of the First World War. Much of the imagery of the day is connected to that war, including the poppies, worn in lapels, that are sold by the Royal Canadian Legion as a fund-raiser. They recall the wildflowers that grow in the fields of Flanders, north Belgium, as mentioned in the poem by Lt.-Col. John McCrae of Guelph that is read at many Remembrance Day commemorations.
The Registry Theatre has been running a production of "Vimy" this week in the run-up to Remembrance Day, and one of the leads is being played by first-year St. Jerome's arts student Jennifer Adesso. The play's final performances are on Saturday, November 10 and Sunday, November 11.
