ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the origins and broad development of the principal rituals of remembrance in both the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States of America (USA). It considers the light of Richard Pierard's and Robert Linder's five-part definition of the nature and function of a 'civil religion'. The chapter explores some of the ambiguities and unresolved tensions raised by the relationship between rituals of remembrance and civil religion in both the UK and USA. The emergence - 'invention' is arguably an even better word - of national rituals of remembrance of those who died in war began at significantly different points in British and American history. Supporters of the established rituals accepted that those committed to alternative peace rallies at least recognized and respected the central themes of honouring the dead and respecting the bereaved in the official Armistice Day ceremonies.
