The Quintessence of Ham

Today is Vet­er­ans Day in the United States, Remem­brance (or “Poppy”) Day in Com­mon­wealth nations, and le Jour du Sou­venir in France. In Viet­nam, it’s not cel­e­brated at all, but that wasn’t always the case.

Unlike the United States’ vaguely-defined Vet­er­ans’ Day, in the places where the hol­i­day is else­where cel­e­brated it remains rooted in the speci­ficity of the Great War, even as those mem­o­ries to be recalled have vir­tu­ally receded beyond the lim­its of the human lifes­pan. In France and else­where in Europe it’s the dead in par­tic­u­lar that are the focus of the day’s atten­tion, and one need not visit in Novem­ber to wit­ness its sig­nif­i­cance in his­tor­i­cal mem­ory. » Read the rest of this entry «