(Warning: this post discusses war, loss of life, and pandemics/ Coronavirus/Covid 19)

In the UK, it's traditional to mark Remembrance Sunday - the Sunday that's nearest the 11th November - and also Remembrance Day, otherwise known as Armistice Day.
This has been tradition since just after the First World War, when literally everyone knew someone who had passed away in service. (World War One was basically 4 years of non-stop slaughter on all sides.)
So, for the last century almost every town and parish in this fair(ish) land has had memorial services for the country's war dead on these days.