"On the eleventh hour"

Tomorrow, November 11, was originally known as Armistice Day. Combat in World War I formally ended at 11:00 am on the morning of the eleventh day, and so "the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month." In Britain on Sunday they observed "Remembrance Day." When I was in grade school, we stood and observed a minute of silence at 11:00 on November 11. It was a solemn time, as it still is in Britain and Canada, and many other countries of the former British Empire who sent soldiers to fight in France. The US came late to that war, and although we suffered many casualties, the countries that were in it from the beginning, Britain, France, Russia, and others, suffered many more. When word spread that the war was over, the initial reaction, of course was relief and celebration. N.C. Wyeth: