Last Wednesday, 11th November, the first Remembrance Day ceremony was commemorated in the Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de los Desamparados de Moraira church.
This service was an opportunity for hundreds of people of all religions and nationalities to come together and remember and honour The Fallen in wars and conflicts. The celebration was performed by Father Marcus Ronchetti, Senior Chaplain of the Costa Blanca Anglican Chaplaincy and Father Vicente Solera, our local parish priest. The entire service was accompanied by the music and voices of the Costa Blanca Male Voice Choir and members of The Royal British Legion, The Royal Naval Association, The Royal Air Forces Association and The Aircrew Association participated in readings. The customary two-minute silence was observed, marked by The Last Post, at its beginning, and the call of Reveille at its end.
The red poppy has become the familiar emblem of this day of commemoration, through the poem "In Flanders Fields". These poppies flowered in the battlefields of Flanders in the First World War, their brilliant red colour became a symbol of the blood shed in the war, and now the poppy is considered a symbol of remembrance, peace and reconciliation.
Remembrance Day follows a tradition started by King George V in 1919. The 11th November recalls the end of the hostilities in the First World War on this date in 1918, when they formally finished "at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month," in agreement with the armistice signed.
