Why Is Veterans Day Celebrated?

Tomorrow is Veterans Day 2026, a national holiday that originated as Armistice Day, a day marking the end of World War I on November 11, 1918. Veterans Day was moved to the fourth Monday in October for six years (1971-1977), but it returned to November 11 in 1978. The holiday is officially spelled “Veterans Day” without an apostrophe because it is a day to honor all veterans and not a day belonging to veterans. The above information came from this site. The site also provides the following information. 

History & Background

Veterans Day 2026 falls on Wednesday, November 11 – the 108^th anniversary of the 1918 Armistice signed in a railroad carriage in the Compiegne Forest at 5:45 a.m. French time, taking effect six hours later at 11:00 a.m., the 11^th hour of the 11^th day of the 11^th month. November 11, 2026 also marks 100 years since the official establishment of U.S. Route 66 on November 11, 1926, and 50 years since President Gerald Ford signed Public Law 94-53 on September 18, 1975, returning Veterans Day from the fourth Monday of October back to its historical November 11 date, effective 1978. The 1968 Uniform Monday Holiday Act (Public Law 90-363) had moved the observance to the fourth Monday in October from 1971 to 1977, but citizens and veterans’ groups objected, citing November 11’s symbolic tie to the 1918 Armistice. Congress made Armistice Day a federal holiday on May 13, 1938 (Public Law 75-510), dedicated to world peace; the 1954 expansion, signed by President Eisenhower on June 1, 1954 (Public Law 83-380), rebranded Armistice Day as Veterans Day to honor all American veterans following World War II and Korea. The civic campaign for that expansion was led by Birmingham, Alabama, shoemaker Raymond Weeks, who had organized the first National Veterans Day Parade in Birmingham on November 11, 1947 – the 79^th annual Birmingham parade takes place in 2026. President Reagan honored Weeks in 1982 with the Presidential Citizens Medal, designating him the ‘Father of Veterans Day.’ Veterans Day 2026 arrives with approximately 18 million veterans living in the United States, according to Department of Veterans Affairs estimates. The American Battle Monuments Commission, established in 1923, maintains 26 permanent American military cemeteries and 32 memorials across 17 foreign countries, including the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery in France, where 14,246 American war dead from World War I rest – the largest American military cemetery in Europe.

How Americans Celebrate

If you’ve ever stood at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at 11 a.m. on November 11 and watched the President lay a wreath to mark the hour the 1918 armistice took effect, you’ve witnessed the centerpiece of the national Veterans Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. The Tomb is guarded 24 hours a day, 365 days a year by sentinels of the 3^rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, known as ‘The Old Guard,’ who march 21 steps down a mat behind the Tomb, turn, pause 21 seconds, march 21 steps back – symbolizing the highest military honor, the 21-gun salute; continuous guarding began on July 2, 1937. The Veterans Day National Committee, established by President Eisenhower in 1954 under Executive Order 10570, coordinates the Arlington ceremony. The New York City Veterans Day Parade, organized by the United War Veterans Council, marches up Fifth Avenue from 26^th to 52^nd Streets – the largest Veterans Day parade in the nation, drawing approximately 25,000 participants and 500,000 spectators annually.

The Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress, created by Public Law 106-380 in October 2000, collects oral histories, photographs, and documents from U.S. military veterans; as of 2026, the project holds more than 120,000 collections. National park entrance fees are waived on Veterans Day for all visitors, not only veterans, under a National Park Service policy established in 2006. Many chain restaurants – including Applebee’s, IHOP, Chili’s, Olive Garden, and Denny’s – offer free meals to veterans and active-duty service members on November 11.

            The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., designed by Maya Lin and dedicated on                November 13, 1982, draws more than 5 million visitors annually and bears the names of 58,181             service members who died or remain missing.