Remembrance Day

Remembrance day is the English equivalent of the various celebrations of the end of World War I on 11-11 at 11:11. St. George's Anglican parish in Berlin had a special service, but took exquisite care not to dredge up any unhappy memories about England vs Germany. No one said a single word about any non-contemporary war.

The homily was given by an Englishman who had spent his professional career as a minister in the German Lutheran church in Berlin. He also solved an historical question about Lutheranism in Prussia: some Prussian King (Frederick, I think) forcibly united the Lutheran and Reformed churches, at least officially. The "true" Lutherans still, apparently, refuse communion to anyone from a Berlin parish because of its enduring Reformed church taint.

I had a more contemporary celebration of 11-11 on Friday, when my secretary brought me a chocolate doughnut with an explanation that it was the proper thing to eat to celebrate the holiday. Why it is proper remained unclear. Perhaps an orgy of fat in memory of the starvation imposed by the (cruel and unnecessary) post-armistace blockade.