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Remembrance Day: What Does It Mean to Re-Member?

Remembrance Day: What Does It Mean to Re-Member?

Last updated on: November 9, 2026 at 3:09 am by Gregory T. Smith

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Remembrance Day: What Does It Mean to Re-Member? 2026-11-01T12:37:54-08:00 Gregory T. Smith

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As an American living in Canada, I’ve noticed something interesting about the way these two countries hono(u)r their military veterans. And for me, this difference is personal.

Remembrance Day: What Does It Mean to Re-Member? Image by pb59160 from Pixabay)

Our collective memory must result in collective action. (Image by pb59160 from Pixabay)

My dad was a career U.S. Army veteran. After his twenty years of military service, he continued to serve the government in a variety of civilian contracting roles. He received a full disability pension related to his service in Vietnam. My father-in-law is a career veteran of the Canadian Air Force, who similarly had a second career working for the country’s defence. So, I’ve had a close-up view of how veterans and their families are hono(u)red on both sides of the border. And I’ve observed something about Canada’s Remembrance Day that I think Americans can learn from.

Two Holidays, One Remembrance

In the United States, Memorial Day honors those who died in military service, while Veterans Day honors everyone who served, with a particular emphasis on living veterans. I recall church services where veterans felt slighted that they weren’t recognized on Memorial Day. We had to point out that their day was in November. Two different days, two types of recognition.

Canada brings these emphases together on November 11, Remembrance Day. The observance was originally called Armistice Day, commemorating the armistice that ended the fighting in World War I in 1918. In Canada, we remember both living veterans and those who never came home.

As I’ve observed before, American observances too often become little more than holidays from work, opportunities for backyard barbecues, shopping sales, and long weekends. Certainly, there are ceremonies, parades, and people who faithfully honor veterans. But I wonder how much the average American actually participates in remembering.

In Canada, it feels different. By the end of October, you start seeing red poppies on people’s shirts, hats, jackets, and backpacks. When Canadians make donations while receiving poppies through the Royal Canadian Legion, the money goes into the Poppy Trust Fund, which supports veterans and their families. People return for poppies every year, not simply to wear a symbol of remembrance, but to make another donation supporting veterans and their families. The poppy becomes more than a symbol of remembrance; it becomes a practical way to care for those who served. Schools hold assemblies. On Remembrance Day, communities gather at cenotaphs. At eleven o’clock, people pause for two minutes of silence.

In Canada, it’s not merely a holiday. It’s a collective act of remembrance. And it doesn’t simply connect the living with the dead. It does something else remarkable—it connects the living with one another. And that has led me to consider what it actually means to remember.

Remembering and Re-Membering

The word remember comes from Latin roots meaning to call something to mind. But I’d like to suggest another way to look at the word. Let’s bend etymology and use this word as a spiritual metaphor.

Consider the word dismember. It means to tear something apart, to separate the members of a body from one another (I know—gruesome image). So, then, what does it mean to re-member? This is more than recalling people and events of the past. It means something deeper—a bringing together of what has been torn apart. It means restoring connections that have been severed, and reclaiming people who have been forgotten.

War dismembers more than bodies. It separates families, destroys communities, divides nations, and leaves suffering that can persist for generations. For a while, I lived in Bedford County, Virginia, home to the town of Bedford. On D-Day, twenty young men from this small community, with a population of approximately 3,200, lost their lives. Most of the “Bedford Boys” served in Company A, 116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division, part of the Virginia National Guard. On D-Day, many of them were among the first American troops to storm Omaha Beach. When telegrams announcing their deaths began arriving at the Western Union office, the small town was devastated. Some parents lost more than one son on that day. Everyone was affected.

This is why Bedford was selected as the location for the National D-Day Memorial. These heroic young men were not taken from a vacuum, but from a community. War stole something of Bedford’s spirit as surely as it took her sons, brothers, husbands, neighbors, and friends. The memorial is an enduring act of re-membering: restoring the names and stories of those who were lost to the community that still claims them as its own.

Remembrance offers an opportunity to reconnect. When we remember those who died, we restore their place in our collective consciousness. When we honor those who served, we acknowledge that their experiences remain part of our shared story. And when we remember together, we recognize that we belong to one another.

Remembering the Forgotten

But lest we forget those who are still among us, Americans and Canadians must re-member our veterans who struggle with trauma, disability, homelessness, addiction, and loneliness. And we must work to re-member the families who continue to carry the personal consequences of war, long after the fighting has ended.

This must be more than simple recall, but a united effort to restore what is broken and honor what cannot be restored. This includes civilians whose lives have been devastated by war, including refugees, displaced families, and people on every side of a conflict. So, we must welcome those whose lives have been ravaged—even those who experienced devastation beyond our own shores.

If remembrance means re-membering, then our responsibility cannot end with ceremonies, “thoughts and prayers,” monuments, and symbolic gestures. Our collective memory must result in collective action.

Fellow Patheos writer Kurt Willems explored a similar idea in his 2013 article, Re-Membering Memorial Day with Love. “Therefore, let’s commit ourselves to RE-Membering,” he wrote, calling Christians to welcome veterans into their communities and build bridges of reconciliation.

And perhaps that invitation extends even further. Re-membering makes room for those who have been discarded, restoring dignity to those who feel pushed aside. It reaches toward those who have given up hope, and turns their longing into belonging.

Lest We Forget

Every Remembrance Day, Canadians repeat the solemn words, “Lest we forget.” Beautiful sentiment, but those words are incomplete without action. We must finish the thought with something more than words, because remembrance requires something of us.

Lest we remember the dead while forgetting the living, we must support the ongoing work of those who provide care and healing to our veterans. Lest we hono(u)r those who served while abandoning those who suffer, we must seek to understand and respond to the complex needs of veterans facing trauma-related mental health challenges. Lest we commemorate the end of war while preparing for the next, we must teach younger generations the skills of peacemaking.

Perhaps the greatest hono(u)r we can offer those who have suffered through war is to build a world where fewer people must endure its ravages. Because remembering is more than looking backward. To remember is to recall. To re-member is to restore.

For related reading, check out my other articles:

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About Gregory T. Smith

I live in the beautiful Fraser Valley of British Columbia and work in northern Washington State as a behavioral health specialist with people experiencing homelessness and those who are overly involved in the criminal justice system. Before that, I spent over a quarter-century as lead pastor of several Virginia churches. My newspaper column, “Spirit and Truth,” ran in Virginia newspapers for fifteen years. I am the author of "Jesus and Lao Tzu: The Way of Love," and am a contributing author to Quoir's anthology “Sitting in the Shade of Another Tree: What We Learn by Listening to Other Faiths.” I hold a degree in Religious Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University and also studied at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond. My wife Christina and I have seven children between us, and we are still collecting grandchildren. You can read more about the author here.

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