Today, Wednesday, November 11, 2026, is Remembrance Day in the UK, Canada and Australia — and Veterans Day in the United States. It marks 108 years since the Armistice that ended the fighting of the First World War took effect at 11am on November 11, 1918.
The silence is held at 11am local time: two minutes in the UK and Canada, and one minute in Australia. The day is not a bank holiday in the UK or a public holiday in Australia, but in Canada it is a statutory holiday for federal workers and in most provinces, with Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba and Nova Scotia the main exceptions.
A window that waits all year
In Ottawa, the National Remembrance Day Ceremony at the National War Memorial starts at about 10:30am. At the Canadian War Museum, a single window in Memorial Hall is lined up so that at exactly 11am on November 11, sunlight pours through it and frames the original headstone of Canada’s Unknown Soldier.
The museum’s window only works on this one day of the year, and it has become one of the most quietly powerful images of Remembrance Day. Flags at city facilities in Ottawa are lowered to half-mast from sunrise to sunset, and veterans ride public transport free when they wear their medals or uniform or show ID.
Two names, one date
The United States keeps the same date but a different purpose. Armistice Day was renamed Veterans Day in 1954, and it is now a federal holiday that honours all US military veterans — which is why American banks and post offices close while British ones stay open.
Remembrance Sunday in the UK fell on November 8 this year, and Indigenous Veterans Day in Canada was marked on Sunday, November 8, honouring the more than 12,000 First Nations, Inuit and Métis veterans who served Canada. Today, the silence at 11am belongs to all of them.
Related reading: Lifeboat Crew Remembrance Parade and Veterans Day Free Meals
