How To Honor War Heroes On Veterans Day In Colorado

COLORADO — Veterans Day, a federal holiday, is held yearly on Nov. 11. It honors all American veterans and military.

While many Veterans Day parades and events have been canceled in Colorado, some virtual and COVID-19-safe events have been announced.

Denver's Veterans Day Parade and Festival has been canceled, but organizers encouraged Coloradans to sign up for the Denver Veterans Day Virtual Run.

The University of Colorado Boulder is hosting a virtual Veterans Day Ceremony at 11 a.m. with keynote speaker Robert Schuetze, a former Air Intelligence Officer with the U.S. Navy.

In Western Colorado, jets from the 140th Wing of the Colorado Air National Guard will fly over Durango at 11:48 a.m., then Grand Junction around 12:05 p.m. and Rifle around 12:15 p.m. In Northern Colorado, F16 Fighter jets will fly over Loveland around 11:11 a.m.

Down south, Pueblo will host a virtual Veterans Day Ceremony at 11 a.m.

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Originally called Armistice Day, the holiday was created at the end of World War I to recognize those who fought in “the war to end all wars,” according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Its origin is tied to the armistice, a temporary end of hostilities, between the Allied nations and Germany signed in France on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.

It became Veterans Day in 1954, shortly after the end of the Korean War and less than a decade after World War II, after various veterans service organizations urged Congress to encompass veterans of all wars in their honor.

Veterans Day is somewhat related to, and sometimes mistaken for, Memorial Day, the federal holiday on the final Monday of May that is dedicated to those who have died while serving the United States in war.