Vigil On this page you will see the Ottawa National Vigil streamed live from the National War Memorial. It will run for seven nights, starting at 5:00pm each evening. The first name appears at 5:15pm. Each night’s vigil will be 13 hours long, ending at sunrise the following day. The vigil will then recommence at 5:00pm and run another 13 hours. The last name will appear as dawn breaks on November 11th.

The Names The vigil will commence November 4th 2008. More than 9,700 names will appear each night. Each individual name will appear only once during the seven nights. These include those killed in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, the Canadian Merchant Navy and the Canadian Army Medical Corps.

Searching The Names To find the exact night and time when a specific name will appear, use the Search Names tab located at the top of this page. The names appearing in the vigil will have no order or ranking. Each man or woman was equal in death.

Vigil Locations This vigil is also taking place in other Canadian cities and in London, England. You can access these by using the Time Zones or London tabs located above. We encourage you to attend in person or to view the simultaneous vigil presentations created on each region’s webpage.

Time Zones This vigil is being presented across 9 time zones. Bear in mind the time difference when attending a vigil in your city. For example the Ottawa National vigil will commence 5 hours after the London International vigil. The Regina vigil will start 1 hour after Ottawa. But wherever you live, the vigil will commence at 5:00pm local time.

Educational Opportunities The History Society is helping to organize local schools and community groups to animate all of the vigil sites. If you are interested in participating in the vigil go to www.historysociety.ca/vigil . Teachers are encouraged to explore the educational resources available for classes at the website.

Memory is part of what makes us human.