Tantramar Flashback -
Today's column was inspired in part by the poem An Autumn Song, composed by New Brunswick poet Bliss Carman (1861-1929). Its opening lines are as follows: " There is something in the Autumn that is native to my blood,/ Touch of manner, hint of mood; /And my heart is like a rhyme, / With the yellow and the purple and the crimson keeping time."
Some years ago, memorizing poetry was universally practised in Canadian schools. Each grade had its "reader" and some of the best poetry was commited to memory by students. It was an assignment that was not always enjoyed!
Nonetheless, after the lapse of many years, I was able to quote, without consulting a reference book, the above lines from Bliss Carman. They were once memorized from the pages of an elementary school reader. I feel certain that "memorization" of such poems will be recalled by many older readers of this column.
The claim has been made and with some validity, that more poems have been written about autumn than any other season.
Here is another example from the English poet John Keats (1795-1831). "Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,/ Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;/ Conspiring with him how to to load and bless with fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run."
The colours of autumn are one feature that we share with our American neighbours. For certain the state of Maine rivals New Brunswick in its annual festival of colour. Thus it will not be a surprise to learn that American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) drew attention to the season.
Here is one example: "Thou comest, autumn heralded by the rain, / With banners by great gales incessant, / Brighter than the brightest silks of Samarkand." The latter refers to a territory now part of the republic of Uzbekistan. It was once noted for its export of silk.
Autumn in Canada is noteworthy for two special holidays - Thanksgiving and Remembrance Day.
Canadian Thanksgiving is already over, as it is celebrated annually on the second Monday in October. Unlike the American tradition where an emphasis is placed on the Pilgrim Fathers and the first settlements in the New World, Canadians give thanks for a bountiful harvest.
An important milestone in the evolution of Canadian Thanksgiving took place on Wednesday Sept. 28, 1763 when the citizens of Halifax marked the end of the Seven Years War by holding "a special day of Thanksgiving."
In 1879, Canada's Parliament declared November 6th a day of Thanksgiving and a national holiday.
Over the years many different dates were used for the event, the most popular being the third Monday in October. For a time following World War I, both Armistice Day and Thanksgiving were celebrated on the Monday of the week in which Nov. 11th occurred.
Eventually, on January 31st, 1957, Parliament proclaimed "... A Day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed . . . is to be observed on the 2nd Monday of October.
This explains our recent celebration of Thanksgiving on Oct.12, 2009. In 1931, the two days became separate holidays and Armistice Day on Nov. 11th was renamed Remembrance Day. In this manner, Canada marked one of the most significant dates in the 20th century - the end of World War One or the "Great War" as it was once called.
Over time the day has become a time to remember the thousands of Canadians who made the supreme sacrifice for their country. On Nov. 11, Canadians, along with others worldwide, pause for two minutes of silence in memory of those heroes and heroines.
Throughout the country from coast to coast to coast, ceremonies of remembrance always take place to include the "11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month" each year.
The universal symbol of the day - the blood red poppy - goes back to the aftermath of the First World War. Appropriately, the use of the poppy as a symbol of remembrance may be traced to Madame E. GuÉrin, a native of France.
It was her suggestion that artificial poppies might be produced for sale to aid those wounded in the battles of World War One. The idea "caught on" and the first remembrance poppies were distributed in Canada in 1921.
It was a Canadian Dr. John McCrae, serving with the Royal Canadian Medical Corps, who immortalized the poppy of remembrance in the words of his famous poem: "In Flanders Fields the poppies blow, Between the crosses row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky the larks, still bravely singing fly, scarce heard amid the guns below . . ."
There is much to remember in Canada's autumn!
Ideas for, or comments about, Tantramar Flashbacks may be addressed to Bill Hamilton in care of the Sackville Tribune Post, 80 Main Street, Sackville, NB, E4L 4A7, or via e-mail at tribune@nbnet.nb.ca
