ATHABASCA – Every year we gather to remember, and even though those large gatherings are being discouraged around the country Nov. 11 because of COVID-19, those who wish to pause, reflect, thank and remember the fallen are welcome to do so on any day of the year.
The fact that every city and town across Canada has a memorial cenotaph speaks to the sheer quantity of soldiers that paid the ultimate price in battles far away from their homes. It speaks to the love of their country and way of life that thousands upon thousands took it upon themselves as a duty to defend those things they held dear and died doing it.
It also speaks to the family lines that lived on after they perished — the ones left to do the remembering.
More than 118,000 have died in battle since Confederation, and since its inception in 1925, the Royal Canadian Legion has been helping Canadians remember by constructing and maintaining war memorials and cenotaphs that now spot the nation, including in Athabasca, Boyle, Barrhead, Westlock and Clyde.
These cenotaphs “serve as gathering places for ceremonies on Remembrance Day, and for other remembrance milestones throughout the year,” says the Legion website.
“They are important symbols of our commitment to honouring and remembering the sacrifices of our Canadian Armed Forces, RCMP, peacekeepers, as well as their families and communities. Unlike monuments, which are structures that pay tribute to the achievements, heritage, or ideals of a person, group, event or time in history, war memorials and cenotaphs are built to honour and remember those killed in conflicts. War memorials help us to never forget.
“The Legion is dedicated to ensuring Canadians have opportunities to remember Canada’s fallen veterans. Whether on a national scale such as the National War Memorial, or locally through community memorials and cenotaphs, Legion members work tirelessly to advocate for, fundraise and coordinate the building and maintenance of memorials and cenotaphs to ensure their community has a place where people can gather to remember our fallen heroes.”
Cenotaphs have been erected across thousands of years of history to honour individuals or groups whose remains lay in a land other than their own going back further than ancient Greece and Egypt.
One of the most famous modern memorial cenotaphs in the Commonwealth stands in the Whitehall area of London, England, where it was unveiled exactly a century ago to commemorate the first Armistice Day in 1919, following the end of World War One. It is simply known as The Cenotaph.
It is made completely out of Portland stone, and rises 11 metres above the ground and weighs in at 120,000 tons.
In Canada from 1921 to 1930, federal legislation mandated Thanksgiving would also fall on Armistice Day, on the Monday of the week of Nov. 11. It wasn’t recognized as Remembrance Day as we know it today until 1931 when an amendment to the legislation ensured the day of Nov. 11 would be known as such.
Every November on the Sunday before Nov. 11, the U.K. celebrates Remembrance Sunday. That was this past Sunday, and as Queen Elizabeth II looked on from a nearby balcony, her son Prince Charles laid a wreath at the foot of the Cenotaph, just as members of the British royal family have done for 100 years. Missing this year though, were the thousands of citizens that flock from around the Commonwealth to remember.
Ottawa is usually home to Canada’s largest Remembrance Day ceremony at the National War Memorial in Confederation Square, but it too will be toned way down this year because of the pandemic.
Locally, in Boyle, the Legion has decided not to hold any type of gathering this year, while in Athabasca, a short ceremony will be held at the cenotaph across from the Legion on 49th St. instead of the gathering of hundreds that usually occurs at the Athabasca Regional Multiplex.
Legion members ask that if you do choose to attend to follow physical distancing and masking precautions.
If you can’t make it, the cenotaph will remain standing where it is, so you can remember any time.
