Canada 1914-1918 Ypres is made possible through the generous support of Veterans Affairs Canada.
The schools in Canada and Europe participating in this vigil are creating a unique act of remembrance. Over the seven days of the vigil, the students in each school will project 9,700 names a day. Each name will appear simultaneously in every vigil location in Canada and Europe.
By appearing at the same instant across Canada and in Ypres, the names will be silently spoken together, one by one. Over the seven days each individual is ‘named’ in light in this manner. The names are projected without order since death came without order on the battlefield, the hospital bed or the operating table. Only the final name is ordered. It is the name of the last soldier lost in WWI. He was killed by a single shot at 10:58am, two minutes before the end of the fighting was declared on November 11th 1918. He was Canadian and his name appears at the end of the seventh day.
Each of the participating schools is to be congratulated for undertaking such a significant project. Students and staff have gone to extraordinary lengths to make their vigil a success by creating a respectful vigil area in their school, undertaking the technical challenges and organizing ceremonies and events to mark each day of the vigil.
Our history lives only if we remember it.
A few schools will be in unique time zone situations with regard to switching back to standard time. Please keep this in mind in your timezone calculations. For example, Fort St. John, B.C., doesn't switch; instead it moves to Mountain (Alberta) time.
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Educational Opportunities
The vigil organizers will send participating schools some educational backgrounders and study suggestions in September. In addition, there are many museums, archives, websites and organizations that can provide educational resources for interested students. The following links are but a few.