Cataraqui Cemetery ‘Remembrance Day’ Ceremony Canceled Again Due to Pandemic – Kingston | The Canadian News

This Thursday is Remembrance Day, a day reserved to remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice.

For the second year in a row, the pandemic has brought about some changes to what used to be “normal,” such as the “Remembrance Day” ceremony at the Cataraqui Cemetery in Kingston.

Typically, Kingston-area schoolchildren would hang flags on fallen soldiers’ graves and then witness a ceremony, but that won’t happen this year.

“The school day before Remembrance Day is always the school day before, so we did not interfere with Remembrance Day, we took about 120 students by bus and they put the flags on the graves of the military land. We saved it for them, ”said Dave Donovan, Chairman of the Remembrance Day Veterans Committee.

“Then there is a very short ceremony to make them understand what the memory is about.”

1:59No Stone Left Alone pays tribute to Vernon veterans

This year, like last, more than 900 headstones now feature a miniature Canadian flag thanks to members of the Remembrance Day committee. Donovan says that’s important.

“If we are going to teach students about remembrance, we cannot forget.”

Despite the recent easing of restrictions, the key is safety. And everyone involved is hoping that the Remembrance Day ceremony will return to normal in 2022.

“We certainly hope to start the whole ceremony and the laying of the flags around the cemetery next year. God willing, ”Donovan said.

“That this terrible virus is gone and we can do that, we wanted to do it this year, but it is still with us. Next year, if we can do it, we certainly will. “

For Donovan and his committee, the message of remembrance must be conveyed: “Lest we forget.”

2:29The in-person Remembrance Day ceremony in Kingston is back.