Veterans Day Theme

World War I officially ended on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. The following year, President Woodrow Wilson along with many other allied nations proclaimed November 11th Armistice Day to commemorate members of the armed forces who died for their country.

After World War II, the United States renamed the holiday Veterans Day and the British Commonwealth renamed it to Remembrance Day.

The idea for this theme actually started with the camouflage background. I had been using solely solid colors for the background—usually a strong primary color, and sometimes a secondary color for the menubars. Wanting to make themes that looked decidedly different, I wanted to use a primary color I had never used before. Orange? No, used that for Halloween. Brown? No, used it for Thanksgiving. Purple? No, used it for New Years. I went through the rainbow, and darn it, I had used all those colors in a theme at some point. I needed something new and different.

Then it hit me—camouflage! It was an interesting idea. Never before had I used an image for the background, and it certainly looked like no theme I had ever created before. With a camo background, though, what theme would it represent? The obvious choices were something military or hunting. Obviously, I went the the military route. But when to display the theme?

Memorial Day was the first thought that came to mind, but I had already created a Memorial Day theme. Then I remembered Veterans Day. Yes, that’s what the theme would be for: veterans.

Knowing that the day was celebrated by many other countries under various names, I deliberately included no US flag in the theme. I wanted the theme to honor all soldiers. In World War I, Americans fought side-by-side with many other nationalities, and it seemed unfair not to honor all of them.

I added the barbed wire as separators in the menubar drop downs as a subtle reference to World War I, the first major use of it in warfare inflicting terrible losses on both sides. Since Veterans Day started as Armistice Day, marking the end of the war, I wanted to make sure to include something particularly noteworthy from that war. And the barbed wire looked really cool in that location on the theme.

I call this theme the Veterans Day theme, but it’s in honor all soldiers who fought for their countries, regardless of the official name of the holiday in those countries.