100 bells to ring out in remembrance
Bells of Peace initiative honours centenary of end of the First World War
This year, Remembrance Day will mark 100 years since bells rang across Europe with the news: The war is over. It’s time to come home.
To commemorate the centenary of the end of the First World War, The Royal Canadian Legion developed the Bells of Peace initiative in partnership with the government of Canada. As the sun sets on Nov. 11, Canadians will hear bells of peace ringing across the country — this time with a new message: We will remember them.
“It was important to us to get it right,” says Danny Martin, deputy director of corporate services for the Legion. “We wanted to make it countrywide, we wanted to make sure it was poignant, we wanted people to stop and say, ‘Why are those bells ringing?’ ”
Roughly 1,400 Legion branches across Canada will be working with local schools, community centres, churches and other organizations to bring the bells to as many cities and towns as possible. The City of Toronto, starting at 4:56 p.m., will ring bells at Old City Hall and the North York Civic Centre as part of its Remembrance Day services. Bells will toll 100 times, with five seconds between each, lasting slightly longer than eight minutes.
The Legion encourages members of the public to contact their local Legion branch to help bring the Bells of Peace to their community, and share the moment with photos and videos using the hashtag #100Bells (#100Cloches in French). Mar- tin says similar commemorations are being planned in Europe and the United States.
In 1918, the sound of the bells was probably the first time many rural Canadians understood the war was ending, Martin says — a moment that was likely met with joy, relief and, for some, solemn reflection. According to the Canadian War Museum, “the First World War was one of the most far-reaching and traumatic events in Canadian history.”
Close to 620,000 Canadians were enlisted, and those left behind at home dreaded the arrival of an official telegram — the harbinger of bad news. One such note exhibited by the mu- seum offers few words for news that would have devastated a family: “Deeply regret inform you Capt Thomas Whitmore Medical Services officially reported died of wounds August 6th 1918.”
Canadians are familiar with the traditional two minutes of silence at 11 a.m. on Remembrance Day, but the Legion chose sunset for the Bells of Peace.
Martin says the sunset has special significance: In Laurence Binyon’s Ode of Remembrance — recited at the start of each Legion gathering — it is a time to reflect:
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning, We will remember them. “We’re 100 years later and we’re remembering an era that’s long gone by, and it’s almost a conclusion,” Martin says.
“But it will never be forgotten. At the setting of the sun, we will remember them.”
“We wanted to make it countrywide, we wanted to make sure it was poignant, we wanted people to stop and say, ‘Why are those bells ringing?’ ”
DANNY MARTIN ROYAL CANADIAN LEGION