Today was the 90th anniversary of the battle of Vimy Ridge, the first and perhaps greatest triumph of the Canadian Corps in the Great War. The government marked the anniversary by re-dedicating the beautiful memorial monument on the Ridge itself as well as by holding a memorial ceremony in Ottawa.
I was fortunate enough to be able to watch the ceremony this morning, and I have to say that it was a moving, emotional pageant. There is, to steal Yeats' phrase, "a terrible beauty" about the monument, and perhaps nothing in the ceremony reflected this as much as the performance of Sierra Noble, a 17 year-old Metis fiddler player from Manitoba whose "Warrior's Lament" was the emotional highlight of the entire proceedings.
On a day when the country is still reeling from the loss of six soldiers in the current conflict in Afghanistan, it is fitting that the people of Canada came together to recognize and remember the sacrifices of an earlier generation.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment