On 1 November all of Belgian stops work and play (it is also
a public holiday) and we then salute our dead. What is particularly poignant is
the small celebration which is held at the Menin Gates of Ypres.
The Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing is a war memorial in
Ypres, Belgium dedicated to the 58 900 British and Commonwealth soldiers who
were killed in the Ypres Salient of World War I and whose graves are unknown!. The memorial is located at the eastern
exit of the town and marks the starting point for one of the main roads out of
the town that led Allied soldiers to the front line-built by the British government;
the Menin Gate Memorial was unveiled on 24 July 1927
To this day, the
remains of missing soldiers are still found in the countryside around the town
of Ypres. Typically, such finds are made during building work or road-mending
activities. Any human remains discovered receive a proper burial in one of the
war cemeteries in the region. If the remains can be identified, the relevant
name is removed from the Menin Gate.
Following the Menin Gate Memorial opening in 1927, the
citizens of Ypres wanted to express their gratitude towards those who had given
their lives for Belgium's freedom. As such, every evening at 20:00, buglers
from the local fire brigade close the road which passes under the Memorial and
sound the Last Post. Except for the occupation by the Germans in World War II
when the daily ceremony was conducted at Brookwood Military Cemetery, in
Surrey, England, this ceremony has been carried on uninterrupted since 2 July
1928. On the evening that Polish forces liberated Ypres in the Second World
War, the ceremony was resumed at the Menin Gate despite the fact that heavy
fighting was still taking place in other parts of the town.
This is how important it is that we never forget; never
allow it to happen again, for as long as you and I pass on this story to our
children and grandchildren, those 54,896
Commonwealth soldiers who lie somewhere, unfound in the Flemish soils, their
burial sites untraceable, but their souls and the memory of their lives kept
forever aflame in our hearts, especially every evening at 20.00 when the Last
Post reunites us with them, at peace, thank God at peace.
Listen here to an
amateur recording of the Last Post being played by these 4 unknown firemen of
Ypres, thanking the dead for what they have today.
I could not resist this video clip of a little Belgian boy
saluting a contingent of Canadian soldiers at one of the WWI memorial marches!
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