Candles will be lit at military cemeteries and memorials across Artois on the night of 10 November 2018 in a mass act of remembrance for all those who didn’t live to see the Armistice ending the First World War.
More than 270 sites will be illuminated for the La Grande Veillée – or ‘Great Vigil’ – in a region which suffered some of the heaviest fighting in 1914-18.
The mass armies funnelled into the Western Front brought soldiers from around the world to the battlefields of Northern France.
A century later, the Arras Pays d’Artois Tourist Office is mobilising public support for La Grande Veillée, inviting people to join the candle-lit vigils in their memory, or take part symbolically by sponsoring a light.
Luminous balloons will light up major sites, among them Faubourg d’Amiens CWGC Cemetery, the Arras Memorial and Arras Flying Services Memorial (Photo © Arras Pays d’Artois Tourist Office)
“Many did not live to hear the Armistice bells ring, or the silence that descended on 11 November 1918,” the vigil organisers say.
“We want to shed light on our remembrance of those who did not see the sun rise. They gave their lives for a new dawn enabling us, one hundred years later, to grow and flourish in Artois, France and Europe.”
The vigils get under way from 5.15pm on Saturday 10 November 2018. For more details, see La Grande Veillée.
Information & images: Arras Pays d’Artois Tourist Office
Posted by: CN Editorial Team
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