Commemoration

Commemoration is the act or practice of remembering and honoring people, events, or past experiences, typically through rituals, ceremonies, or dedicated sites and artifacts. It serves to preserve memory, acknowledge impact, and transmit lessons to future generations. The term derives from Latin commemoratio, from commemorare meaning to call to mind or mention.

Common forms include public ceremonies on anniversaries, the unveiling or maintenance of monuments and memorials, the installation of plaques, and the operation of museums and archives. Religious observances, national holidays, and educational programs also function as commemorations. In modern contexts, digital memorials and social media campaigns extend commemoration beyond physical sites.

Commemoration may honor victims or heroes, celebrate collective achievements, acknowledge harms or injustices, or promote reconciliation and civic identity. It often aims to teach history and to foster reflection rather than celebration.

It is distinct from celebration or mourning; it may combine solemnity with tribute, remembrance with education.

Personal remembrances (family rituals), local or community memorials, national or state commemorations, and transnational or diasporic memory networks constitute different scales and networks of remembrance.

Memory practices can be contested, manipulated for political ends, or exclusionary. Debates may concern which events deserve commemoration, how they are portrayed, and whose voices are represented.

Examples include Holocaust Remembrance Day, Armistice Day (Remembrance Day), Memorial Day, and various indigenous or local memorial projects.