On November 11, 2018, Chowan University, along with over seventy-five percent of counties in North Carolina, will collaborate with The Department of Natural and Cultural Resources (DNCR) to commemorate the centennial Armistice Day with a bell ringing ceremony.

The program will begin at 10:30 AM at the Susan Parker Kerr Gazebo adjacent to McDowell Columns Hall on the Chowan campus with bells ringing promptly at 11:00 AM. Bells will toll in unison across North Carolina and throughout the world as a unifying element to commemorate Armistice Day which marked the end of WWI 100 years ago. Bell ceremonies of all kinds will take place. Church bells, government buildings, and even hand-bells will ring 21 times in honor of the hope for peace.

The North Carolina DNCR traveling display on World War I is on exhibit in the Whitaker Library on the Chowan Campus. Attendees are invited to visit the library to learn more about people, places, and artifacts of the Great War. The display is up now and will remain beyond Armistice Day.

On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918, the first World War ended – bells rang in celebration around the world. Nations mourned their dead and collectively called for an end to all wars. The U.S. Congress later designated Armistice Day to honor and promote peace.

Despite the promise to U.S. soldiers that “The Great War” would be the “war to end all wars,” the peace that followed was short-lived. World War II erupted in Europe 20 years later. Although the hope for world peace has been dashed many times since, the Armistice Day ceremony seeks to recognize the terrible waste and suffering that war entails and imagine the possibility of peace.

The Department of Natural and Cultural Resources is working in partnership with the World War I Centennial Commission and the local chapter of Veterans for Peace. Additional partners include the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars.