Remembrance Day

We went to a different church today-United Reformed. Kaitlyn's Brownie troop was asked to participate for Remembrance Sunday and I figured it was good for her to experience and learn. Over here, Remembrance Day is actually November 11 (from WWI) and on that day at 11 am, everyone is asked to stop and give 2 minutes of silence. For the most part, people still do that.

Griffen has football (soccer) on Saturday mornings on the village green. He doesn't play in a league-it was full-so this is more who shows up, plays. Anyway-when he was finished, we walked over and watched the league players for a bit. At 11 the ref blew his whistle, stopped the game and everyone on the green stopped and bowed their heads for 2 minutes. Pretty moving. I suppose with the wars being closer to home here than in the US, no one is allowed to forget. On a side note-surprisingly there is quite a bit of prejudice against Germans still.

Back to Remembrance Sunday...I'm glad we went-the Brownies read a poem about poppies:

IN FLANDERS FIELDS.

In Flanders field the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

~~By Major John McCrae, May 1915.~~

they sang a song, and after a short service everyone followed the Brownies, Cub Scouts and Pastor in silence down the street to the War memorial where names of those from the village who died in WW I were read out loud. The Brownies then laid poppy wreaths and wooden crosses at the base of the memorial. A teen aged girl played The Last Post on her trumpet and we had 2 minutes of silence.

Kailtyn & Griffen would've forgotten today's reading at Mass, but I don't think they will forget what they did instead.

Guy Fawkes Day

Our First Guy Fawkes Day. Technically we really shouldn't take part in it considering what it is. Background: Guy Fawkes was a Catholic who wanted to blow up parliment and kill the King. His attempt was foiled, he was hung and burned and every year since then England celebrates this by having huge bonfires with a "guy" being burned and fireworks. So they are celebrating a foiled terrorist attack and burning a Catholic at the stake. But we are here and we want to experience all there is...

So at 6 (it gets dark really early now) we head over to the biggest bonfire I have ever seen. It is sponsored by Griffen's Scout Group in Duxford-so we use the fund raising bit as an excuse as well. The kids run around in the dark and we have no idea where they are-but we have become much more relaxed in supervision here good or bad I don't know. There are actually quite a few people here-and everyone from Duxford itself has walked to the field, in wellies of course. It is a nice clear, cold night-but the bonfire puts out a fair amount of heat. We can see plumes of smoke from all the other village bonfires-and this country says they are worried about global warming?

After the fireworks we run to the car to escape before the mad dash of others and miss the traffic jams.