There is a city...

October 11, 2019 8:54 AM

...that stops for one minute every year.
posted by jim in austin (10 comments total)

Israel does this for two minutes every year (link), also for Holocaust remembrance.
posted by wicked_sassy at 9:12 AM on October 11, 2019 [6 favorites]

That was very moving.
posted by mumimor at 9:27 AM on October 11, 2019 [5 favorites]

This is to remember the second Warsaw Uprising. The first - in the ghetto - is remembered in April, when people buy jonquils. Not all do - not even many - but if you are in Warsaw on 19 April, you can't miss it.
posted by hat_eater at 9:35 AM on October 11, 2019 [2 favorites]

Britain's observance of the two-minute silence marking the end of World War One is rather patchy these days, but can still be quite touching.

A few years ago, I happened to be in a large department store right in the middle of London when they counted down to the silence over the store's PA. Most of the people I could see stopped in their tracks and paused their conversations till the PA returned with a tinny recording of The Last Post to let everyone know they could talk again. All you could hear for a few seconds on that busy sales floor was the occasional mother hushing a puzzled child or some oblivious dick in the distance still babbling into his cellphone.

It's a tradition that's on its way out, I guess, but I for one shall miss it.
posted by Paul Slade at 9:54 AM on October 11, 2019 [7 favorites]

Just as long as the Poles don't stop on the way to the polls this Sunday.
posted by chavenet at 9:58 AM on October 11, 2019 [4 favorites]

I wonder what's going through the minds of the people who keep walking in some of those shots.
posted by The corpse in the library at 10:14 AM on October 11, 2019 [1 favorite]

the city I'm most familiar with doesn't have the kind of history that Warsaw does, but I'd love to see something like this once a year to remember that it was all pretty much a forest less than two hundred years ago -- that we now live in what amounts to the largest clearcut in the region.
posted by philip-random at 1:30 PM on October 11, 2019 [1 favorite]

It was more meaningful before the 44 Uprising was coopted wholesale by right wingers and fascists. Right now if you see anyone wearing any of the related symbols or celebrating more strongly than just standing for 5pm, it's a clear sign.

But if anyone swings by Warsaw, you can't miss the Uprising Museum. And then you exit it and remember the city you see is rebuilt wholesale because it was bombed flat in retaliation. We sure are stubborn bastards.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 11:09 PM on October 11, 2019 [3 favorites]

The Netherlands has two minutes every year.
posted by DreamerFi at 5:22 AM on October 12, 2019 [1 favorite]

Canada does two minutes on November 11. Cars on the 401 pull over, buses stop, radio and tv stations mute, shops stop serving, etc; I’m usually working in a public library and in charge of making the announcements before and after (as well as de-escalating any situation where a patron refuses to respect the tradition). I honestly thought this was the norm in most countries. We don’t have air raid horns though, I think most people have the CBC or some other media reminding them and playing taps at the end.
posted by saucysault at 6:17 PM on October 13, 2019 [1 favorite]