Remembrance Day in the Haut-Saint-François has always brought together
military personnel and their families around the various cenotaphs in the
region.
Everyone pauses to remember the soldiers who died in the various
conflicts that Canada participated in since the First World War in 1914 to
1918. And now Canada is once again involved in armed combat, this time against
ISIS.
Schedule
In Scotstown, a Remembrance Day ceremony is
planned for Saturday, November 8, at 10:30 a.m., at the Municipal Hall. The
Ceilidh Society will offer lunch. In Bury, a ceremony will be on the same day,
at 2 p.m., at the Armoury Community Centre.
In East Angus, on Sunday, November 9, the ceremony is to begin at the 10
a.m. mass, then continue by laying flowers at the cenotaph.
In Sawyerville, Cookshire, East Clifton and
Island Brook, the Sawyerville Legion organisers plan a tour on Tuesday,
November 11, stopping at four cenotaphs in these four villages. The tour begins
at 11 a.m. at the monument at 6 Principale St. in Sawyerville. The second stop
is at 11:45 a.m. in East Clifton, in front of the United Church, located on
Route 253, between Clifton Road and Store Road. Lunch is at 12:15 p.m. at the
Sawyerville Hotel-Auberge. Another service is at 2 p.m. at the cenotaph in
front of the Cookshire Elementary School, and the last one is at 2:45 p.m. in
Island Brook.
In Weedon, a simple homage will take place on
November 11 at 1 p.m., when families will gather at the war memorial for
several minutes of reflection.
Mission
The mission of the Legion is to help veterans
and their dependents, to promote Remembrance, to support military personnel in
service, and to be involved in local and regional communities across Canada.
The tradition of wearing a red poppy goes back to the First World War. In
Flanders, it is said, few of these flowers grew. But after the terrible
bombardments during the war, lime from the chalky soil was scattered across the
ground, facilitating the growth of the blood red poppy. Canadian physician Lieutenant
Colonel John McCrea noticed this phenomenon and wrote the famous poem that
begins "In Flanders fields the poppies blow/ Between the crosses, row on row...".
The poem was published on December 8, 1915, in Punch
magazine.
