Armistice Day in World War I: Why November 11 Is a National Holiday

Armistice Day was established as a national holiday to commemorate November 11th , 1918, when in the French city of Compiègne, in Marshal Ferdinand Foch’s special railway carriage, the armistice ending World War I was signed at 11 a.m. It remained in effect until the final peace treaty was signed in Versailles on June 28, 1919.

By signing it, hostilities in World War I between the Allied Powers and Germany were halted. Ferdinand Foch, Marshal of France and commander of the Allied forces on the Western Front, and Matthias Erzberger, head of the German delegation, signed the armistice in a railway carriage near Compiègne, Picardy, France, at 5:45 a.m.

Foto: AP

It came into effect at 11 a.m. on November 11th , 1918. Previously, Germany’s allies - Bulgaria, Turkey, and Austria-Hungary—had already signed capitulations. The symbol of this holiday is Natalie’s Ramonda (Ramonda nathaliae), which can often be seen on officials’ lapels.

The document, largely drafted by French Marshal and Supreme Allied Commander Ferdinand Foch, essentially called for the cessation of hostilities, the withdrawal of German troops behind the borders, the preservation of infrastructure, the exchange of prisoners, the promise of reparations, the destruction of German warships and submarines, and outlined conduct during the armistice.

A National Holiday in Serbia Since 2012

Armistice Day has been celebrated as a national holiday in the Republic of Serbia since 2012.

Before that, it had been observed since 2005 during the first class of the day in all primary and secondary schools in Serbia. Serbia paid an extraordinarily high price for its victory in the Great War.

Foto: AP

In what was then the most horrifying conflict the world had seen, according to data from the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, Serbia lost 1,247,435 people - 28% of its entire population as recorded in the 1914 census, or 60% of its male population.

Of that number, 402,435 soldiers were killed or died from wounds and disease.

The First Serbian Casualty of the War

The first Serbian casualty was Dusan Djonovic - only 16 years old, a clerk at the Railway Directorate and a member of the Chetnik unit led by Vojvoda Jovan Babunski.

He died on the very day war was declared, during the attack on Belgrade, defending the border on the Sava and Danube rivers.

How It Will Be Commemorated in Serbia

Prime Minister Djuro Macut will lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Hero on Avala, followed by a state ceremony of wreath-laying at the Ossuary of Belgrade Defenders from World War I.

The state ceremony will be led by Milica Djurdjevic Stamenkovski, Minister of Labor, Employment, Veterans, and Social Affairs.

Earlier, on Monday at 4 p.m., members of the Serbian Army Guard performed an honorary artillery salute to mark Armistice Day.

They fired ten volleys from six artillery pieces from the Sava Terrace at Kalemegdan, while the representative orchestra of the Guard played the Serbian national anthem and the national flag was raised.

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