November 11, 2024: What is the program for the commemorations of the 1918 armistice ?

“11  ;November 2024: what program commemorates the 1918 armistice?”

ARMISTICE NOVEMBER 11. This holiday Monday, France commemorates the signing of the 1918 Armistice between Germany and the Triple Entente. Ceremonies celebrate this symbolic date all day long.

This Monday, November 11, 2024, France commemorates the 1918 armistice. The signing of this document between Germany and the Triple Entente (France, Great Britain, and the United States) was a major event, marking the end of the First World War, also known as the “Great War”. This prelude to the Treaty Versailles Treaty of 1919 allowed the suspension of the fighting that had been raging for four years between the two camps.

Every year in Paris, the Élysée celebrates the armistice of 1918. Throughout France, this symbolic day is celebrated with a series of ceremonies paying tribute to the soldiers of the Great War who died for France, at some 30,000 war memorials erected in towns and villages. Frenchçais.

&On the occasion of the 106th anniversary of the Armistice of November 11, 1918, the President of the Republic will wear the Cornflower of France in his lapel this Monday morning and lay a wreath of tricolor flowers in front of the statue of Georges Clemenceau, President of the Council during the First World War. After walking up the Champs-Élysées, escorted by the Republican Guard, he will lay a second wreath in front of the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, under the Arc de Triomphe, before rekindling the flame.

This symbolic day is also celebrated by a series of ceremonies paying tribute to the soldiers of the Great War, the “poilus” who died for France, at the approximately 30,000 war memorials erected in French towns and villages. At exactly 11 a.m. on November 11, the commemorative bells ring in every village in France. This is the time when the Allied victory was announced. Two minutes of silence are then observed at the national level. The rest of the day is a new opportunity to walk in the footsteps of the Armistice of November 11, 1918:

The choice of the date of November 11 is not by chance: it is a “French” choice since this date falls right on that of the traditional feast of the patron saint of the Franks, St. Martin. The cannon therefore stopped at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the year 1918 on the front in the North-East of France… and consequently throughout Europe. The soldiers then came out of the trenches without fear, but the festivities were inevitably filled with mourning. From 11 o'clock in the morning on November 11, 1918, peals of bells and bugle calls announced the end of the fighting on the Western Front. They rang out after four years of war that had left a bloodless France and 1,500,000 victims, most of them young. In total, the Great War left more than 8 million dead and wounded. &At 4pm, at the Palais Bourbon, Clemenceau reads the armistice conditions. He also salutes Alsace and Lorraine while paying homage to the Nation.

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In 1919, the project of the tribute to an unknown soldier who died in the First World War, anonymous symbol of all the “Poilus”, was adopted by the French deputies. The following year, the unknown soldier who was to be transferred to Paris was designated by another soldier at Verdun, by the depositing on one of the coffins of a bouquet of flowers. Following this, in 1920, the Parliament voted the following law: unanimity: “Article 1: The honors of the Pantheon will be given to the remains of one of the unidentified soldiers who died on the field of honor during the 1914-1918 War. […]
Article 2: […] The remains of the Unknown Soldier will be buried under the Arc de Triomphe." This will be done on January 28, 1921. On November 24, 1922, Parliament declared November 11 a "national holiday" with the name "Remembrance Day".From then on, November 11 became a public holiday. On November 11 of the following year, following the idea put forward by several artists, a “Flame of Remembrance” was lit by the Minister of War André Maginot. A sacred flame that a “Flame Committee” has since had the task of rekindling every day at dusk. It has never gone out, even during the Occupation. To keep it alive, a very strict ceremony of “rekindling the flame” has been observed daily for 92 years, always the same. It takes place every evening at 6:30 p.m. The Associations are led, in parade, to under the Arc de Triomphe, with the wreath bearers at the head and then the flag bearers. The flag of “La flamme”, bugle and drum of the Garde républicaine are placed around the Sacred Slab. The Flame bell rings out; the flame is rekindled; the wreaths are laid. Then, the bell “Aux Morts” rings out, the flags are lowered and a minute of silence is followed. The Golden Book is signed, everyone greets each other and then everyone finally meets at the foot of the grave to listen to the musicians play “Honor the Unknown Soldier”.

November 11 marks the anniversary of the Armistice of 1918. This document, signed between Germany and the Triple Entente (France, Great Britain, and the United States) and a prelude to the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, suspended the fighting that had been raging for four years between the two camps. Every year, in France, this symbolic day is celebrated by a series of ceremonies paying tribute to the soldiers of the Great War who died for France, at the approximately 30,000 war memorials erected in French towns and villages.

The 1918 armistice is a treaty that occupies a large place in history.What happened on November 11, 1918 ? After the failure of the German offensives of June and July 1918 during the Great War, the Americans and British began an offensive in August 1918 which definitively pushed back the German forces. After two months of resistance by the German General Staff, the text of the armistice was negotiated and signed in the “Armistice Wagon” on November 11, 1918, at 5:15 a.m. This was Marshal Foch's command wagon near the Allied headquarters, not far from the Rethondes station in the Oise. At 11 a.m. on November 11, 1918, the armistice took effect on the front.

By signing the famous treaty at Rethondes on November 11, 1918, the Allied forces and Germany officially ended their conflict by setting several conditions. Also on November 11, Charles I, then Emperor of Austria, finally renounced the throne – his Habsburg dynasty had reigned for more than 600 years. For 100 years, even among the youngest, November 11 has symbolized the outcome of the Great War.

The November 11 meeting contains many anecdotes, and its history remains unknown or forgotten by many former schoolchildren. What did the Treaty of Versailles say? What were the conditions of the 1918 armistice? Find out more in our file dedicated to the armistice 1918.

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08:01 – What are the emblematic sites of the Great War of 1914-18 ?

November 11, which marked the end of the First World War, left behind 9.7 million dead, including 1.4 million French people. On the occasion of the commemorations, history enthusiasts will be able to visit the sites emblematic of the Great War of 1914-18. Follow in the footsteps of the Poilus across the Somme, Lorraine or Champagne: