November 11, 2015

A bugler of the 27th Australian Infantry Battalion plays the “Last Post” at sundown in October 1941, near Hammana, Lebanon. Credit: Frank Hurley (Australian War Memorial)

Today, November 11, at eleven o’clock in the morning, millions of people around the world stopped what they were doing and observed two minutes of silence to remember those killed in global conflicts. November 11 is a holiday known as Veterans Day in the United States (where all who served, living or dead, are remembered) and Armistice or Remembrance Day in most other countries. The day marks the end of World War I in 1918. On that day, Germany accepted the armistice terms demanded by the Allies, ending what was then the most destructive war in world history. The somber November 11 holiday began in 1919, exactly one year after the guns fell silent.

In the United Kingdom and many other Commonwealth nations, the two-minute silence of Remembrance Day is punctuated by the playing of the “Last Post,” the bugle call that has long signified the end of the British Army’s day. Since the Crimean War of the 1850’s, however, the “Last Post” has also been played at soldiers’ burials. And since the end of World War I, the bugle call has sounded at commemorative ceremonies as well. The song symbolizes the final rest of those killed in battle.

In the United States, the bugle call of “Taps” is played at military funerals and memorial services—a practice spread widely during the American Civil War. “Taps” also originated as an end-of-day bugle call.

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