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[Airplane flying and crashing noises]
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Back from the dead.
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Survived the war.
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My name's Ronnie.
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I'm going to teach you something today that is very important
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in many countries of the world, probably including your country.
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It commemorates people who fought in the war,
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World War I, World War II, and what we're
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doing is we are respecting people who gave their lives for our freedom.
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Thanks, soldiers.
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Have you noticed that when you walk around in November, people are wearing red flowers
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or a red pin on their jackets?
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And you may ask yourself: "Why...?
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Why are people wearing these red...?
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Is this...?
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Is this a new brand?
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What's happened?"
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What has happened is Remembrance Day.
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Or if you are living in America, it's called Veteran's Day, and in other countries of the
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world it's called Armistice Day.
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This day is November 11th.
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So, what happens on November 11th at 11am is we have what's called one minute of silence.
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That means at exactly 11am for one minute we do not speak, because we are remembering
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men and women who died in the wars.
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So, we have a very special way to say this, we say:
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"The 11th hour"-which is 11am-"of the 11th day of the 11th month".
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So this is November 11th at 11am.
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You might think: "Well, hey, hold on, Ronnie. You think that the war just ended at 11am?
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They're just like: 'Oh, we're not going to fight anymore'?"
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No.
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Unfortunately, it didn't happen like that.
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What happened was it marked the end of World War I in 1918.
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So, November 11th at 11am there was a treaty signed and
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it marked the end of World War I in 1918.
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But then you know history, and go: "Hey, there was a World War II."
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Yeah, so there was a World War II-has that ever ended?-and it ended at a different date,
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but this holiday commemorates people who have fought in any wars.
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So, what does Remembrance Day...?
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What...? What does it commemorate?
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Why do we have this?
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As I told you, we remember members of the armed forces.
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"Armed forces" means people in the military, so people in the Army, the Navy, the Marines,
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anywhere where there's armed forces who died in the line of duty.
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"In the line of duty" means they died while at war or while fighting.
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In the USA, they also have a special day called "Memorial Day".
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Now, Veteran's Day and Memorial Day is a little bit different in the USA.
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Memorial Day is actually for the people who died, but Veteran's Day remembers anyone and
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everyone who fought in the war.
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Like in Remembrance Day and Armistice Day, even if you didn't die in the war, if you
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fought in the war, we are remembering and respecting your time and your life that you
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gave for our countries.
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In America, Memorial Day is the last Monday in May, but Veteran's Day, Remembrance Day,
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and Armistice Day is November 11th.
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So, you might still be thinking, like: "Whoa, Ronnie, what?
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I'm so confused.
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November 11th, why are people wearing poppies?
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I don't get it.
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I don't understand about poppies."
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So, the reason why we wear poppies, which are a red flower on our jackets, is because
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there is a very, very famous soldier...
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Well, he was more than a soldier actually.
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He was a Lieutenant, so this word is Lieutenant-Colonel, and he was a doctor, and he was Canadian.
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He was a Canadian physician.
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He earned the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.
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His name is John McCrae.
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John McCrae wrote a really famous song...
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Or, sorry.
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Poem, probably a song, "In Flanders Fields".
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Now, Flanders is a place in Belgium where there was a war.
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So, what happens is the people who were in the war were buried in Flanders Fields.
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He wrote a poem.
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When I was in school...
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Any school child in Canada has to recite the poem:
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"In Flanders Fields where poppies grow, among the crosses, row on row, that mark our place".
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Bam.
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So, what happened is he was talking about poppy fields that grew that marked the soldiers'
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graves.
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Another lady thought this was kind of cool, and decided to use the poppy as the emblem
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or the symbol to represent brave men and women who fought in the wars.
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If Remembrance Day teaches us nothing to remember the people,
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how about we talk about not having wars?
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Let's try that for the next Remembrance Day.
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Until next time, we salute the troops.
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See ya later.