What is Armistice Day?
Armistice Day commemorates the armistice signed between the Allies and Germany in a railway carriage in the forest of Compiègne, France, which took effect at 11 a.m. on 11 November 1918, the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. The date marks the end of the fighting on the Western Front, although the peace treaties were signed later, from 1919 onwards. It is a day for remembering those who died in the war.
In France and Belgium the day is a public holiday with ceremonies at war memorials, wreath-laying and a minute of silence, and in France the president lays a wreath at the Arc de Triomphe. Serbia also marks 11 November as Armistice Day, in memory of the First World War victims. Other countries use the date under different names, such as Remembrance Day in Canada and Veterans Day in the United States. In Poland the same date is National Independence Day, marking the restoration of Polish independence in 1918.
Why it is observed
The first Armistice Day ceremonies took place in 1919, including the two-minute silence at 11 a.m. in Britain and the Commonwealth. In France the day was made a public holiday by law in 1922, and Belgium also marks it. After the Second World War the commemoration in several countries was widened to cover all wars and renamed: the United States turned Armistice Day into Veterans Day in 1954, and Britain holds its main remembrance on the second Sunday of November. France continues to focus on the First World War and marked the centenary in 2018 with large ceremonies in Paris. Poland restored 11 November as its independence holiday in 1989 after the communist period.
How the date is set
Armistice Day is fixed on 11 November, the anniversary of the armistice that ended the fighting of the First World War on the Western Front in 1918.
How it is observed
In France and Belgium, 11 November is a public holiday: banks, offices, schools and most shops close, though the main ceremonies take place in the morning at war memorials. Serbia lists the day as a state holiday and a non-working day, and in Poland 11 November is the Independence Day holiday. In 2027 the date falls on a Thursday. Where it falls on a weekend, most countries do not move it. Pay and time off depend on national law and the contract.
Sources
Belgium
France
Serbia