One Minute's Silence

One Minute's Silence (Rita Lindsay)

The emotional impact is still as real today as it was all those years ago. One Minute's Silence is an integral part of every service and commemoration. It is a moment that allows all to reflect and remember. This song acknowledges the 11th of November on the 11th hour that marks Remembrance Day, formerly known as Armistice Day, when the guns fell silent and the battles ceased on the Western Front. The Red Poppy is significant on Remembrance Day as the symbol of the blood that was shed. Fields of Red Poppies grow upon the battlefields of the Western Front. The seeds of the poppy can lay dormant for years without germinating, only until the soil has been uprooted or disturbed to they then grow. The Red Poppy is featured in the poem "In Flanders Fields", written by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae in 1915.

"I first heard Rita's song "One Minute Silence" when she played it in front of the school during our "Remembrance Day" Assembly at Meningie Area School. I remember talking to the children aged from 5 years old to 18 years, most of whom had not had the privilege of walking among the thousands of graves at places such as Tyne Cot or Etaples, or having read the names upon the massive walls at Villers-Bretonneux or Menin Gate, and trying to bring the relevance of that day into their lives. I asked the children to think about how lucky we have been to live in a relatively peaceful world, and to consider that, for that to continue, the best thing we can do is to ensure that we act in peaceful ways in our own part of the world. If everybody did that then the whole world would be a peaceful place. I also asked the children to think about ways that they could bring peace into their worlds during the minute silence..." Mal Jurgs, Deputy Principal, Meningie Area School, 2009.

Mal Jurgs has actually influenced the direction of two additional songs on the Connecting Spirits, Songs of Remembrance CD, those being 20th Century Catastrophe and A Soldier of the War, through the message of peace and his inspirational words; in terms of what can we learn from the past to better the future.

http://www.awm.gov.au/commemoration/customs/silence.asp
http://www.awm.gov.au/commemoration/remembrance/tradition.asp
http://www.awm.gov.au/commemoration/customs/poppies.asp