Veterans Day in WOA

America honors all its past and current military men and women with Veterans Day on Friday, Nov. 11, but on Sunday, Nov. 6, members of the library’s Talk Lab English Club got a glimpse of how the holiday came about and into some of its traditions.
Veterans Day began as Armistice Day to mark the end of World War I, then known as the Great War, at the 11th hour, on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. More than 9 million combatants perished in the conflict, including 53,402 American troops. The United States changed its commemoration to Veterans Day in 1954, as a way to salute all men and women who served in the American military – Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force or Coast Guard.
To learn about Veterans Day, the 20 participants in the Sunday Talk Lab worked on a holiday-related crossword puzzle that featured English vocabulary-building words and phrases such as army, navy, no man’s land, trench, wounded and monument.
Speaking of monuments, the Talk Lab members also viewed a slide show of several American memorials to veterans, including those that honor military personnel who participated in World War II, and the Korean and Vietnam wars; the Arlington National Cemetery and Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, both outside Washington, D.C.; soldiers who were killed in the Civil War battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and the national tribute to the D-Day landing of June 6, 1944 which eventually led to the Allies’ victory over Nazi Germany.
Talk Lab members also took turns reading from a famous poem about World War I – “In Flanders Fields,” written by Canadian physician and Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae after he saw the death of a friend at during the terrible battles of Flanders, an area that spans part of France and Belgium. The poem goes:
In Flanders fields the poppies grow
      Between the crosses, row on row,
   That mark our place; and in the sky
   The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
   Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
         In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
   The torch; be yours to hold it high.
   If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
         In Flanders fields.
The poetic images of the crimson poppy flowers refers to the first flowers to grow atop the fresh-turned graves of the soldiers In addition to the activities regarding Veterans Day, the Talk Lab participants also reviewed the English words “clothes” and “close,” which sometimes can be confusing. The noun “clothes” – pronounced klohz – refers to garments that people wear. The verb “close” – which also is pronounced klohz – means to shut, as in “close the door.” But the adjective “close” – when pronounced klohs – means near or next to, as in “the library is close to the Dnipro River.” More photos.