If you don’t want to observe two minute silence- don’t be out

[Mokel]

Every Remembrance Sunday and Nov 11th, when I worked at retail, we did a tannoy announcement with 5 min, 2 min before to inform customers that the store will be observing the 2 min silence. Then another to start it.

Every time there were customers who kept talking. Plus one time a woman in her 50s shouted “why can’t anyone serve me some fucking fags?” Everyone just looked at her. Some had the courage to say how disrespectful she was once the silence ended.

If you are unable or refuse to observe the silence at 11am today or tomorrow, please don’t be in a public place.

I don't observe Remembrance day. I often forget, and like others will wander around oblivious. Of course if I am aware , I will stop what I am doing and pause, but I don't use this time to reflect.

It's not that I don't recognise the sacrifice, my Dad was a WW2 veteran, every year as a child we visited his dead friends in cemeteries in Northern Italy. That was our remembrance. He was very anti war, and saw first hand the appalling loss of life. He was very much of the opinion though, that remembrance was a private thing, to be marked by those with the experience. He didn't like the performative nature of modern remembrance.

I often wonder how long we will keep going? We never marked the Napoleonic wars, WW1 and WW2 veterans are now mostly gone, and wars since then, although awful, have just not been on the same scale.

I don’t think so.

Her age is relevant because shops and businesses didn’t really observe a 2 minute silence when she was young. It was only observed on Remembrance Sunday and shops were closed in those days.

Do, not so..

YABU... I think a lot of people just don't remember it's the 2 Minute Silence and I think that's OK to be honest. When I was a kid, over 40 years ago, many, many people were alive who remembered the war and were still mourning someone who died in it, and it had real meaning to a large chunk of the population. But the fact is it is on the very edge of living memory now. I do think people should respect silences etc if they are around them and aware of them, but people need to be realistic that active war is very far away from anyone who isn't a current or former service member, or has one in their family.

I was at supermarket this morning and TBH had totally forgotten in was Remembrance Sunday (ironically) and a very-soft spoken shop assistant said something to me that I couldn't work out (there was no announcement) and I couldn't make her out, it sounded like she was saying 'Too many signs' and I had no idea what she was on about. It was only when I was at the checkout that I looked at the time and realised she must have said 'there's a two minute silence' - as I was on my own I wasn't making any sound in that time, so i was glad I wasn't on the phone or with someone or I wouldn't have known.

Nope. They started opening on Sundays as a one off in the run up to Christmas 1991. Then realised how profitable it was so kept it going. We got double pay plus a day off in lieu to begin with, which quickly changed to just being normal working day.

that is just so clearly not what the OP meant.

@BakedAlaska12 how can you be so sure? Are you a mind reader?

It's a possibility, sure, but not a certainty. Especially since she posted after a lot of these comments were made and didn't bother to clarify.

But at the same time retail workers observing it do not deserve to be shouted and sworn.

There are no WW1 veterans left. With the last dying in May 2011 - 92.5 years after war ended.. I can see a few still going 100 years after WW2 ended.

This to also remembering those who fought in wars after that.

i hate the way Remembrance Day had become so bloody performative.

Exactly so. Anyone who appears on TV has to be sporting a red poppy. Which in all probability was dished out by the Wardrobe department. To me that is showing a lack of respect - just turning it into a theatrical prop.

No, while I understand your reasoning I think this is an unacceptable infringement on personal liberty.

I actually think it'd be better for those whom DO want to observe to stay home, or go to a specific event, themselves.

“This to also remembering those who fought in wars after that.”

This is exactly why it is a contentious issue in my country.

oh...I googled, it was revived 25 years ago

This is the bit I don't understand, until then the day was commemorated on Remembrance Sunday with a Church Service and a parade to the war memorial and laying of wreaths. There was no 2 minute silence on 11th itself. If Remembrance Sunday was good enough for those who had actually lived and fought through the World Wars, why isn't it good enough for those who have been fortunate not to be caught up in war? And then have the thought police decreeing that we must be quiet.

I’m grateful that I’m able to think/ remember things whilst also going about my day as normal. Do people who perform a 2 minutes silence not think about things like this for the rest of the day/ year?

The shop wasn't observing it. Nobody was back in the early 90s. That's why everyone else was confused. It wasn't the done thing back then.

Everybody was observing it . . I was doing office work in the 90s and it was definitely the 'done thing' , also in the shops .

Only read the first page and so sad at the responses. It’s 2 minutes to remember the fallen fgs. Yet another reason this world is fkd.

My childhood village has been doing church congregations for RS since the 50s as many died in the wars.

The parades I did were 1988-93

It was introduced in the late 90s. Blair went all out to get sun readers who at the time were campaigning to bring in a silence. When he said he'd do it he started getting positive headlines from them.

Meetings if any on 11th Nov didn't start til 11:15am to allow staff to do the silence, go to the loo, grab a coffee etc.

Everybody was observing it . . I was doing office work in the 90s and it was definitely the 'done thing' , also in the shops .

I don't think it was. I was working in offices from the mid 1970s onwards and we never stopped on 11th November. I only remember it starting in about 2000. Remembrance Sunday was the day and I think there was more genuine remembrance.

I think you're in the minority. It's 2 minutes for goodness sake. Just respect it.

It wasn’t a thing back then near me
Definately since 2000

Only read the first page and so sad at the responses. It’s 2 minutes to remember the fallen fgs. Yet another reason this world is fkd.

I think when they made it Remembrance Sunday, back in the 1920s I think, there was time for a proper Remembrance - not a stupid 2 minutes in a busy working day in addition. I do recall that a lot of towns would make some sort of signal - at 11 am on the Sunday and people would stop then if they wished.

Incidentally Blair's administration also saw the first non-armistice silence - just a few months into it, for the death of the Princess of Wales.