At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, Australians are urged to be silent for one minute.
The silence echoes a moment in time when the guns of Europe's Western Front fell silent in 1918, after four years of fighting in the First World War.
Now, 95 years on, after another world war and numerous other wars and conflicts, Remembrance Day still stands out as a day when Australians from diverse cultural backgrounds pause to remember those who have died in war.
Michael Kenny looks at Remembrance Day and what it means today.
Remembrance Day ceremonies are held in Australia and other parts of the world to honour the soldiers who fought and died during the First World War and the conflicts since then.
Wreaths are laid and a minute of silence is observed at the exact time that an armistice came into effect after a war that had cost an estimated 10-million lives.
At 11 a.m. on the 11th of November 1918, the guns fell silent along the line of trenches and barbed wire in Belgium and France known as the Western Front.
The moment when hostilities ceased then became associated with the remembrance of those who had died in the Great War, as it was then known.
This year's Remembrance Day ceremony at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra also marks the 20th anniversary of the Reinterment of the Unknown Australian Soldier- a soldier whose identity was unknown at the time of his death during the First World War.
The address at this year's ceremony will be given by former Prime Minister Paul Keating who also gave the address in office when the soldier was reinterred in 1993.
"The Unknown Soldier honours the memory of all those men and women who laid down their lives for Australia. His tomb is a reminder of what we've lost in war and what we have gained. We've lost more than 100 thousand lives and with them, all their love of this country and all their hope and energy."
Among those attending Remembrance Day events around the country will be representatives from migrant community sub branches of the veterans organisation, the Returned and Services League.
Ramazan Altintas is the President of the Turkish Sub Branch of the Victorian RSL and has led Remembrance Day events involving the Turkish Australian community over many years.
Mr Altintas says while Turkey fought against Australia in the First World War, Remembrance Day is a good opportunity to reflect on how close the two countries have become since.
"And we are remembering all those lives lost in wartime- it doesn't matter whether they were Australian or whether they were Turkish- we never forget. We are now in Australia. Our grandchildren and our children were born here. On the one hand, they are Australian and on the other hand, Turkish. That's multicultural. That's why the younger generation should keep going and remember what their grandfather did in fighting before and be proud."
Another RSL migrant sub branch president, Charlie Farrugia, has helped organise Remembrance Day commemorations for the Maltese Australian community in South Australia since the 1960s.
He says Remembrance Day holds special significance within the Maltese community because many wounded Australian soldiers were treated in hospitals in Malta during the First World War.
But Mr Farrugia says Remembrance Day is an important reminder of the sacrifices in war across many parts of the world.
"Well I think it is very important, especially when you talk about people within the Commonwealth- like Malta, India and Pakistan- the British Commonwealth. They should take part or at least remember that we made big sacrifices, so that we can be a free country."
An Indigenous war veterans association says Remembrance Day is a good opportunity to reflect upon the contribution made by thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander soldiers.
Gary Oakley is the Indigenous Liaison Officer at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra and the President of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Veterans and Services Association.
He says records from the Department of Veterans Affairs show around 500 Indigenous Australians served in the First World War and three thousand in the Second World War.
Mr Oakley says Indigenous soldiers had a lot more obstacles to overcome than their non-Indigenous counterparts and they enlisted during the First World War despite an official ban on non-Europeans from joining the Australian forces at that time.
"It's been a secret history. People don't know about the service and sacrifice of Indigenous Australians. We've been in uniform since before the Boer War. I think the earliest known Indigenous Australian in uniform was in the early 1860s in the Colonial Navy of Victoria. So we've been around serving the nation even before Federation."
Mr Oakley says the Australian Army, Navy and Air Force ignored official rules and still enlisted many Indigenous Australians.
He says Remembrance Day is now a good opportunity to celebrate the nation's rich cultural diversity.
"If you look at the First World War and you look up the make-up of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF), 25 per cent or roughly 25 per cent of the AIF were born in the United Kingdom- they were British born. The rest of the 1st AIF were men from Sweden, Denmark and America and New Zealand and there were some Chinese and there were some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. So the Australian military has always been culturally mixed. And today if you for instance take a look at the Federation Guard parade on our parade ground on ANZAC Day and look at the faces of the men and women serving in that- they come from all different societies and countries."
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