Reading Veterans Day 2021: Observance At Town Common

READING, MA — Reading will hold its annual Veterans Day observance on the Town Common Thursday morning.

The ceremony will begin at 11 a.m., and coffee and donuts will be offered starting at 10 a.m. The event will feature remarks from Veterans' Services Officer Kevin Bohmiller and Deputy Police Chief Christine Amendola, a Bronze Star recipient and veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

See the full schedule below:

Veterans Day, commemorated annually on Nov. 11, was first celebrated in 1919 to honor those who fought in World War I. It was initially called Armistice Day and was renamed Veterans Day in 1954.

The holiday's 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 following 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.