This past Memorial Day I did an episode that talked about what Memorial Day was all about, and probably more importantly what it isn’t about. Considering tomorrow, as of the date that this episode will be released, is Veterans Day, I figured I would do a similar episode today. With all of the kids who are doing some sort of remote learning, homeschooling, or some other variation on what we might consider a normal education experience, I thought an episode like this might be good for all those teachers and parents who may not be able to do a Veterans Day assembly like they had done in previous years, and also for those who just want to know more about Veterans Day.

Veterans Day is observed on November 11th each year in the United States. It is a day where we pause to give thanks to everyone who served in the United States military and celebrate the  sacrifices they have made for us, and the freedom they fought for.

Originally, Veterans Day was known as Armistice Day. Armistice Day was created to celebrate the end of the fighting in World War One. The fighting in that war ended at 11 o’clock on November 11, 1918. In other words, the fighting ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day in the 11th month. Across Europe, the day is still known as Armistice Day, and it’s known as Remembrance Day in Canada. They’re different names for essentially the same thing.

So, you might be wondering, if Armistice Day was created to celebrate the end of World War One, why is it now called Veterans Day, since Veterans have fought in other wars. Armistice Day became a legal holiday in 1938 20 years after the fighting ended. That’s the speed of the Federal Government for you. A few years later the United States entered World War Two. That war was even more significant in terms of the number of deaths and wounded American troops. World War One had about 117,000 deaths while World War Two had about 405,000 deaths. World War One had about 204,000 wounded, while World War Two had about 671,000 wounded. There was a movement that started in 1945 by a World War Two veteran named Raymond Weeks to expand Armistice Day to celebrate all veterans, which started to gain momentum. Eventually in 1954 Congress amended the name of the day to Veterans Day so that the day could recognize veterans from all eras, past, present, and future. Again, the Federal Government is amazingly efficient when it comes to these sorts of things, aren’t they? This time it was only 9 years after that movement started, so it’s progress I suppose.

In 1968 a Uniform Monday Holiday act was put into effect, which made three-day weekends for federal employees on several holidays including Washington’s birthday in February, Memorial Day in May, Labor Day in September, as well as Veterans Day and Columbus Day in October. Yes, both Veterans Day and Columbus Day were celebrated in October. Each of those holidays were to be celebrated on a Monday, which in effect would create a three-day weekend for federal employees and anyone who followed the federal holiday guidelines. The reason for this was to encourage people to travel on their long weekends rather than just getting a random day off in the middle of the week. It actually sort of makes sense, because when people have an extra day off on the weekend they’ll be more likely to take a weekend trip somewhere, which encourages them to spend money on touristy stuff, hotels, entertainment, restaurants, and things like that. So Veterans Day observations were moved to the fourth Monday in October starting in 1968.

So why do we celebrate it on November 11th now?

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