Every evening since July 2nd 1928*, at precisely eight o'clock, the Last Post has been played under the Menin Gate in Ieper (Ypres, "Wipers" as it was known to British tommies), Belgium. The ritual - performed by buglers from the local fire brigade - honours British and Commonwealth soldiers killed in the five battles at Ypres in the First World War. Today is the 27,888th day of the Last Post ceremony. [more inside]
posted by MuffinMan on Sep 26, 2009 - 16 comments

It's Not Easy Being Green. [more inside]
posted by Lord_Pall on Aug 6, 2009 - 26 comments

"What we are seeing in this project is that all of Europe was a camp." The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum just released the first volume of a projected seven-volume Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945. "They assumed the finished work would be massive, featuring a staggering 5,000 to 7,000 camps and ghettos. They underestimated by 15,000." [more inside]
posted by kirkaracha on Jun 3, 2009 - 23 comments

Today marks the first National Famine Memorial Day in Skibbereen, Co. Cork. Actually the first day in a week of activities (.pdf), Skibbereen was one of many areas in western Ireland hard-hit by the famine (or Great Hunger). [more inside]
posted by dbmcd on May 10, 2009 - 3 comments

As was noted previously, Robert Rauschenberg left us ealier this year at age 82. The webcast of a private memorial for Robert Rauschenberg’s friends and family will be viewable tonight for one time only at 9 p.m EST.
posted by R. Mutt on Oct 27, 2008 - 13 comments

Memorial Day it seems is getting a bad name in recent years. But as the politicos run around like crazies, we mustn't forget the little things about the holiday, its history and what it stands for, and even its more traditional customs like grilling, and of course flag etiquette.
posted by msaleem on May 25, 2008 - 24 comments

Interactive Vietnam Veterans Memorial
posted by flapjax at midnite on Apr 1, 2008 - 26 comments

The Joseph Curseen, Jr., and Thomas Morris, Jr., Processing and Distribution Center opened in December 2003 with little fanfare. Formerly the Brentwood (D.C.) Post Office, it was renamed by House Resolution 3287 in honor of the two postal workers killed after two letters containing anthrax passed through on their way to Capitol Hill. [more inside]
posted by Challahtronix on Feb 7, 2008 - 7 comments

In many Commonwealth countries, today is Remembrance Day. From Wikipedia, it's "a day to commemorate the sacrifices of members of the armed forces and civilians in times of war". Today it's worth reading a few famous wartime poems, and pausing in thanks to those who have fought for your country.
posted by dbarefoot on Nov 11, 2007 - 83 comments

“Iraq War Memorial: Death of Prince Harry" features the in fact hale and hearty royal scion "laid out before the Union Jack with pennies placed over his eyes and head rested on the Bible...Prone with his unfired gun still holstered, Prince Harry is represented clutching a bloodied flag of Wales, and holding to his heart a cameo locket of his late mother, Princess Diana, while a desert vulture perches on his boot...a bronze casting of Prince Harry’s 'severed ears' also set for display at the Trafalgar Hotel will be offered on eBay." Via.
posted by Abiezer on Oct 11, 2007 - 50 comments

Updatefilter: Apparently a poppy was the cause of espionage accusations. As reported here on the blue, some US contractors were apparently freaked out by a novel Canadian coin which featured a red poppy. The coin was issued by the Royal Canadian Mint, an organization that makes Canadian cash as well as currencies for other countries. The Mint, which is definitely worth a tour if you're in Ottawa, won an award for the coin. The coin was issued to honour Canadian war dead; the poppy is the symbol of the Royal Canadian Legion.
posted by Zinger on May 7, 2007 - 46 comments

104 year-old Herb Hamerol was the lone survivor on hand at this year's 101st memorial for the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. To some people he's a celebrity. Truth is, to attend the memorial he took the day off from his long-held job as a stock clerk at Andronico's supermarket. Yes, read that paragraph again.
posted by miss lynnster on Apr 25, 2007 - 33 comments

The Lives They Left Behind. Previously on MeFi, the Village Voice article. Related are efforts to restore cemeteries located on the grounds of old "insane asylums," creating memorials See information from Washington, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Georgia.
posted by ClaudiaCenter on Mar 21, 2007 - 12 comments

The Iraq Veterans Memorial is "an online war memorial that honors the members of the U.S. armed forces who have lost their lives serving in the Iraq War. The Memorial is a collection of video memories from family, friends, military colleagues, and co-workers of those that have fallen." A project of the Brave New Foundation. [Via Bushflash.]
posted by homunculus on Mar 17, 2007 - 12 comments

Ryan Larkin [1943-2007]
posted by docgonzo on Feb 17, 2007 - 32 comments

Leslie Harpold Remembered When her annual advent calendar was not updated after December 7th people all over the web started to express concern over Leslie Harpold's absence. Sadly it has been confirmed that she died sometime last week. I think Leslie would be touched to see the way friends and strangers have spontaneously posted remembrances of her via a medium she loved and help mold.
posted by amphigory on Dec 12, 2006 - 67 comments

The Air Force finally went and got themselves a proper memorial. Although he’s now deceased, the man who designed it also designed some other buildings around town. It’s a unique structure, with time-tested big lead balls to compensate for the wind. On opening day, a ‘sky-parade’ of old and new aircraft paid tribute, flying overhead in sequence. Some like it, some don’t.
posted by matty on Oct 18, 2006 - 40 comments

Canadian PM Stephen Harper expressed his "disgust" over the Canada Day incident. Royal Canadian Legion spokesperson Bill Butt described it as “abhorrent” and “vile,” and demanded increased security. Ottawa police described the case as a priority. If only we had some sort of fence, or corral, to prevent this sort of disaster. The virtual manhunt has begun, but we need your help: have you seen this man?
posted by mek on Jul 4, 2006 - 56 comments

A memorial ride is taking place tomorrow in New York City in memory of a fourteen-year-old boy who was rundown on his bike last year. This man is responsible for the death and there are many unanswered questions. No charges have been filed, but what is more disturbing is the lack of remorse from the young man who was responsible for this tragedy.
posted by jennababy on May 13, 2006 - 73 comments

The Uncanny Valley of the Portrait Dolls Wouldn't your daughter like a doll that looks just like her? Wouldn't your son love to pal around with his very own clone? You can get it done in paper, felt, cloth, plastic, bobblehead, porcelain or magnets! For schoolgirls, toddlers, babies (preemies too!) and even fetuses. Don't worry Mom and Dad, you can get them too!
posted by Biblio on Apr 5, 2006 - 35 comments

9-11 I've never posted a link before and don't mean to create any debate or make any statement. I just thought that before the day was out we do the obvious and remember.
posted by brautigan on Sep 11, 2005 - 136 comments

NYC Remembers: Public Service Audio and Video Ads

"It's our big September 11 sale! Take 30 to 40 percent off every item throughout the store! Plus early birds take an additional 10 percent off! . . . Doors open early and stay open late!" (Video Ad 3)

The ad is the creation of One Day's Pay (similar post from 9/11/04) a nonprofit group working to establish Sept. 11 as a national day of volunteering. [via]
posted by clgregor on Sep 9, 2005 - 3 comments

The winning design for the National AIDS Memorial Design Competition has been announced. Janette Kim and Chloe Town's "Living Memorial" references forest fires, and will be located in the National AIDS Memorial Grove in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Walter Hood, a juror, called the design a “gutsy anti-landscape element that reflects anger, death—and eventual healing and renewal.”
posted by R. Mutt on Apr 26, 2005 - 13 comments

Hunter S. Thompson's ashes WILL be blasted from a cannon mounted inside a 53-foot-high sculpture of the journalist's "gonzo fist" emblem. You can see Hunter & Ralph Steadman plan these details in the BBC documentary Fear & Loathing in Gonzovision.
posted by helvetica on Apr 5, 2005 - 22 comments

Hero stones are carved stones (found all over India) erected in the honor of a brave man or woman who perished while defending the interests of the village. Image search.
posted by dhruva on Mar 14, 2005 - 6 comments

"My daughter and I, searching for comfort, spent many hours looking at memorial sites for others, especially children. It seemed to ease the pain a little knowing that there were others who knew and understood our pain and that through the internet we could be united with them."

Haye's Friends in Heaven links to a variety of websites complete with heart-wrenching graphics and bizarre animations. You can vote on your favorite; winners recieve nightlights.
posted by iamck on Feb 8, 2005 - 44 comments

The Churchmouse: Ecclesiastical Architecture, Stained Glass, Church Monuments and other Funerary Monuments such as Cast Iron Grave Markers.
posted by monju_bosatsu on Jun 17, 2004 - 3 comments

The Capital Times' obituary page notes that "Sally Baron, age 71, of Stoughton, died Monday, Aug. 18, 2003.... Memorials in her honor can be made to any organization working for the removal of President Bush."
posted by fold_and_mutilate on Aug 22, 2003 - 22 comments

The Crazy Horse Memorial is a monument in progress in the Black Hills of South Dakota (where Mount Rushmore is too.) Dedicated to Crazy Horse, the Oglala Lakota Sioux warrior famous for his role at Little Bighorn, it will be 641 feet long by 563 feet high when completed. There will be a night blast on June 26, weather permitting.
posted by homunculus on Jun 22, 2003 - 19 comments

Libeskind's "wedge of light" WTC design isn't what you thought. Specifically, if you thought that sunlight would shine down on the plaza at precisely the interval between the time the first tower was hit, and the time the last tower fell...no. That's not what Libeskind meant after all. Actually, there would be shadows, it turns out. From other buildings! So funny, so pathetic.
posted by luser on May 1, 2003 - 10 comments

184 Cantilevered Aluminum Benches and 70 Maple Trees make up the memorial at the Pentagon for September 11. I like its solitude, its stillness. What do you think?
posted by tommyspoon on Mar 4, 2003 - 23 comments

The two finalists for the WTC site have reportedly been chosen. The Think design and the Daniel Libeskind submission. I just hope its the 'high funded' Think version. (Although I'm also sruprised (in a good way) that it actually made it through ... considering it doesn't replace the missing office space)
posted by MintSauce on Feb 4, 2003 - 21 comments

The six finalists in the Pentagon Memorial design competition. The contest (official site) has "emerged as a kind of dress rehearsal" [NYT] for the upcoming World Trade Center competition. The Post reviewed the proposals, which will be narrowed to a winner on Feb. 21.
posted by mediareport on Jan 1, 2003 - 8 comments

Tumbling Woman A statue of a falling woman designed as a memorial to those who jumped or fell to their death from the World Trade Center was abruptly draped in cloth and curtained off Wednesday because of complaints that it was too disturbing. It's all right if you don't want to discuss it here and now. I was also in NYC and saw the towers on that day.
posted by neu on Sep 18, 2002 - 70 comments

The Shot Chord Heard Round the World! On the morning of Nine Eleven 2002 at 8:46am, over 160 choirs across the world will sing Mozart's "Requiem" to metaphorically stand in for the thousands of voices silenced a year ago. Among all the ideas I've heard to commemorate this occasion, this one seems the most dignified, and least cringeworthy. They mentioned it on NPR's Morning Edition (caution: Real Audio file).
posted by ZachsMind on Sep 10, 2002 - 33 comments

"In tribute to the victims of the 9/11 attacks, Blue Man Group has created an eloquent video. The usually explosive performance artists do not appear in it; there are no blue-painted heads in sight. Instead, pieces of white paper drift down in front of a pure black background as percussive music plays. All these papers were found in Brooklyn, where they floated across the river from the World Trade Center." (Quoting The New York Times.)
posted by Soliloquy on Sep 6, 2002 - 30 comments

Is the planned WTC memorial in the wrong place? "There is a desperate futility in the project as presently conceived, because even if the whole site were turned into a memorial garden it would be in the wrong place. For most of the dead did not die there at all, but a thousand feet away, a sixth of a mile, directly above. "

Finally IMHO the perfect solution! The city gets its office space back, the country gets its memorial, the world gets a shockingly wonderful new piece of architecture.
posted by revbrian on Aug 7, 2002 - 59 comments

View the Wall. Recently a group of photographers took photos of every name on the Vietnam Memorial, did some magic in Quicktime VR, and now you can search the entire wall virtually. Nothing is as good as actually being there, but this is a close second.
posted by jragon on Jun 28, 2002 - 13 comments

The Movement for an Appropriate 9/11 Memorial
    What is sacred space? The influence of spiritual leaders, philosophers, ethicists, psychologists, anthropologists and other scholars is notably absent in discussions about what to do with the former WTC site.
    Among advocates for a large WTC memorial, there is consensus that the site is "sacred." September's Mission wants victims families to take part in a process of determining what will serve the function of connecting people to sacredness. They want public money to be spent in this direction too. But how can people's feelings, behaviors and attitudes be planned? Can popular beliefs be incorporated into large-scale government decisions? (1, 2)
posted by rschram on May 31, 2002 - 18 comments

"Towers of Light" given ok by Bloomberg "There's nothing we can do to bring back those we lost, but we have to make sure we have a way to remember". Towers of Light and a now-damaged sculpture called "The Sphere," which stood in the fountain of the trade center plaza, will form two temporary memorials.
posted by Mutha on Mar 5, 2002 - 11 comments

Is Yates kids' memorial website a bit odd to anyone else? Will Andrea visit them here?
posted by jbunch on Feb 21, 2002 - 10 comments

Criticism Over WTC Statue Race Issues -- I'm sure many of you are familiar with a recent photo featuring three firefighters raising an American flag over the WTC rubble. Now a company has been commissioned to make a statue of the photo at FDNY Brooklyn Headquarters. In the statue though, the three white men who were originally depicted in the photo have been transformed into one white man, one black man, and one Hispanic man. There has been criticism over whether it is going to far to make these changes in order to be politically correct. Others are saying the statue should be more of a symbolic representation of all ethnicities that sacrificed themselves during this tragedy. What do you think?
posted by yevge on Jan 12, 2002 - 36 comments

Widow of Sept. 11 Hero Gives Birth. "Lisa Beamer, the widow of the man who cried, 'Let's roll!' as passengers aboard one of the doomed Sept. 11 flights prepared to confront their hijackers, has given birth to a healthy girl." How bittersweet; a part of him lives on, but I'm sure there is sadness because the husband couldn't be there for the birth.

Also, the Beamers have started a memorial foundation for children who lost parents in the 9/11 attacks.
posted by jennak on Jan 11, 2002 - 9 comments

The AIDS Memorial Quilt has an official website. Its quilt image database is browsable and searchable by name, and includes images of over 42,960 individual panels, each in honor of a lost loved one.

It's an utterly amazing testament to those claimed by the disease, and to those who have survived them.
posted by mattpfeff on Dec 1, 2001 - 2 comments

Speaking of Veterans Day, here in Chicago we have the National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum. Art by Vets about the War. Most pieces are on-line with a short essay. The Above and Beyond memorial is impressive to say the least.
posted by skallas on Nov 11, 2001 - 2 comments

Filling the Void Phantom Towers, a memorial by Paul Myoda and Julian LaVerdiere. "They imagined two powerful beams rising from a reflecting pool, refilling the void left by the twin towers with incandescence."
posted by Nick Finck on Sep 17, 2001 - 25 comments

For the Mormons here at MeFi -- and, of course, anyone else -- the Church is broadcasting a Memorial Service nationwide, that is also being streamed (requires Windows Media Player). I'm sure other national religious organizations are doing the same... so if you know of others, post them here.
posted by silusGROK on Sep 14, 2001 - 0 comments

Memorial to Wang Wei Note that there is no religion given. This might explain his sudden departure from his role as stunt man for Tom Cruise. God was not his co-pilot. No Wei.
posted by Postroad on Apr 18, 2001 - 16 comments

Bush says "Nuh-uh" to Reagan Memorial Good googly-moogly, Dubya does something right!!! Oh, gawd and I'm agreeing with his decision. I need to go wash myself.
posted by ratbastard on Mar 9, 2001 - 21 comments

Three months after Chris Kempa was struck and killed by a truck, the city of Livonia, Mich., has ordered his family and friends to stop memorializing him at the site (from Kempa.Com, run by his older brother Adam).
posted by rcade on Feb 25, 2001 - 22 comments