November 11, which falls on a Monday in 2024, will allow the French to enjoy a three-day weekend. Many of them will also be on the roads to spend a few days away from home. November 11 is one of the eleven public holidays governed by the Labor Code, during which students and a large majority of employees do not work.
This public holiday was established by the law of October 24, 1922 dedicated to the commemoration of victory and Peace. A date chosen in reference to the signing of the Armistice, November 11, 1918 in Rethondes (Oise) between the Allies and Germany.
This agreement, which ended the First World War, a four-year conflict which left more than 9 million dead and missing, including 1.4 million in France, and more than 21 million injured, including 4 million in Hexagon. “On average, 900 young French people died every day on the battlefields,” underlines the Vie publique website. Each family has lost one or more of its own, whose memory it piously preserves: its last letters, its portrait in uniform, its decorations…”.
Since the law of February 28, 2012, November 11 is also a day of tribute to all those who “died for France” whether they are civilians or military and whether they have perished in current conflicts or old conflicts. The memory of those who “perished during external operations” can thus be celebrated.
Specific ceremonies and days of tribute are organized throughout France. In Paris, the flame of the unknown soldier under the Arc de Triomphe is traditionally rekindled in the presence of numerous officials.
The body of this unidentified soldier was chosen from among those found on the front during the First War to be placed in a tomb, and constitutes a place of national contemplation. An eternal flame has burned continuously there since 1923 to honor the memory of anonymous soldiers who fell on the battlefields.
