November 11 is approaching at a fast pace. Little red poppy pins can now be found in local businesses. The 11th is meant to be a day to respect and honour those who fought for our country and died. However, when I attend a Remembrance Day ceremony each year, I see people on their phones, impatiently waiting for the ceremony to end, and poppy pins being tossed in garbage bins, or worse, on the ground.
In the days leading to Remembrance Day, I find that the more popular topic to speak about is Christmas. Even now, when I wander my neighbourhood, I see Christmas decorations up; some houses even have a Christmas tree lit up indoors. I can hear the quiet humming of carols as I study in libraries. Are we paying respects or planning what we’ll buy as gifts for everyone we know?
Christmas tends to be centered around materialism and profit for the corporations, that push the “holiday” on us sooner than need be, despite the concept of Christmas originating from the story of Saint Nicholas. The story being the Saint Nicholas would make toys and give them to orphans and poor children. Frankly, if we as a society were to follow the beliefs of Saint Nicholas we would focus on giving back to our community instead of counting down the days until Christmas.
Aside from the countdowns starting 50 days before Christmas, parents have the chance to bring their children to sit on Santa’s lap at the mall as early as Nov. 10. As a society we have made it acceptable to put a heavily materialistic holiday before having a moment of silence for our fallen soldiers.
As a nation, we have a moment of silence on Nov. 11. It is a solemn day not to celebrate, but to be thankful for the sacrifices made in order protect the freedoms we have. During the moment of silence, televisions and radios stop operating on the normal schedule and instead play “The Last Post,” which is a trumpet song played at military funerals. During this solemn moment I have, on multiple occasions now, overheard the complaints of people whispering about when either the radio or television will go back to normal programing.
Has the attention span of our society gotten so small that we can’t sit in silence for a short minute? I’m not asking for everyone to spend two hours at the Remembrance Day ceremonies, but to take a literal minute out of every year to honour the fallen soldiers. We have forgotten our history of hardships of war and famine that let us enjoy holidays like Christmas now.
Before planning how you are going to celebrate Christmas, before putting shining lights on your house, before buying gifts to hide away for over a month, take a day and put on the red poppy to not just pay respects to the families of fallen soldiers, but to show your gratitude for how the loss of another has gifted you the privilege of living your life in such a carefree way.
Image: Cory Jensen/The Cascade
Emmaline is working on her BA and ambitions to become an English teacher. They always say, those who cannot do, teach. She spends her free time buying, reading, and hoarding books with the hope that one day she will have no furniture and instead only have piles of books.
