That schools didn't observe the 2 minute silence for VE day today?

No ours didn't. They are incredibly strict on the 2 mins silence for Remembrance Day though. Made it clear that anyone not being respectful would be in lunchtime detention for a full week. And they did follow through.

What traditions?

These multiple silences are a fairly recent thing. Throughout the 60s, 70s, 80s and until 1995 there wasn't even a national silence on 11 November. There was a cenotaph service the Sunday after, maybe if you were in a COf E church (nb definitely not a catholic church) you'd do something that Sunday too, and that was it.

Then in 1995 John Major called for a big VE cosplay street party in May, which fell flat on its arse, and a silence on the 11th November itself, because he wanted to get Sun reader votes. Even then most people didn't observe it. Blair, newly elected in 1997, cottoned on to the idea of silences and we had one for Diana dying, then one for the 11th that year, then it's kind of snow-balled since then till we get to now, where we have silences for VE, armistice, Queen dying, King getting crowned, covid, Ukraine, Edna's hamster dying, someone in Wales feeling a bit sad, etc.

It's not some kind of eternal noble tradition - it's not even something that any UK citizens over the age of 50 have grown up with.

Remembering the 65,000,000 dead you mean? Do you think we should forget about these lives just because time has moved on? We can pay respect for those that fought for our country, it doesn't mean people don't care about other issues.

If they live here and go to school here, they should observe the British traditions.

Most of the primary schools here dressed up for it or wore red white blue colours and observed the silence but our city was bombed heavily in the war and is a naval city so probably has more importance here.

Didn’t know there was one.

We have 11th November for the 2 minute silence for remembrance
Today is a celebration

@Superfoodie123 - heck, why restrict it to that one?

Yemen, Syrian civil war, Sudanese civil war, Myanmar civil war, Ethiopian civil war, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a drug war in Mexico that killed over 6,000 last year...
There is appalling conflict, violence and in some cases war crime happening all over the world.

Having one day to reflect on those who served in all wars, and those who lost their lives in whatever capacity, seems a better thing than "X many years since this battle or that one."

Nothing better than a bit of forced respect hey. The most respectful thing people can do is not vote reform.

I honestly think it's pure irony anyone would do this when there are at least 60000 people who've been murdered under the guise of war by israel. We're still remembering what happened all those years ago and doing absolutely nothing about the children being starved to death in palestine right now

This made me think of the story of the Japanese soldier who was hiding out in the jungle somewhere alone and never got the memo that the war had ended until the 1970s!!!

Agreed.

Also agree with PP that it's all very performative.

Do it at home OP. When you want.

My DC school had their Sports Day this morning - there was no 2 minutes silence. Neither of my DC have had any lessons about VE Day to my knowledge. It’s very poor in my opinion.

DS’s high school did, DD’s high school didn’t. I don’t personally think it was needed tbh. DS started GCSEs today and I checked that his exam was not scheduled for that time.

The annual silence on November 11th is enough.

We don't need memorial services and silences for D-Day, Dunkirk, VE Day etc every 5 years, we have a perfectly good national day of remembrance to reflect on such things.

Ours did

Just checked with my kids and they did the silence at school today.

We had a picnic with two WW2 evacuees at my school today. It was lovely, the VIPs were happy, the children were very well behaved and the parents really got into the spirit of traditional VE day food offerings. No 2 minute silence but lovely singing and poetry recitals. No idea if DS' school did anything though 🤷‍♀️

Sorry,the above post was agreeing with what PluckyCheeks said.

That's what I thought! The clue is in the name!

It is significant but to my mind the 2 minute silence is specific to Remembrance Day, which remembers all who died in conflict defending our country, as well as marking the end of the First World War. It’s diluted if you use it at other times.

British contingent? Odd comment given that it was a world war.

Our primary school observed the two minute silence and had a special lunch.

my work ties in closely with the Bank of England base rate announcements and it’s only due to them giving notice today’s would be released at 1202 I knew it was happening

The school I work in (secondary) had a silence today and we have spoken about VE day and the reasons we mark the day.