Le Monde - France | Tuesday, November 11, 2008Too many days of remembrance
In France November 11 is a public holiday commemorating the armistice that ended World War I. Le Monde newspaper writes that it's possible for a country to have too many days of remembrance: "Within the space of half a century the number of days of remembrance in France has doubled. A committee led by the historian André Kaspi has warned about this 'remembrance inflation' and proposed retaining only three national days of remembrance: November 11 (anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended World War I), May 8 (victory against the Nazis) and 14 July (French Revolution). This provoked an immediate storm of protest. On the contrary, new remembrance days should be introduced to take account of recent developments in French society. That's right. Then we would have a really impressive number of public holidays. ... But how can we squeeze in all these dates? 365 day will hardly suffice."
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