Common British, Canadian, American, South African and ANZAC_Day ANZAC traditions include two minutes of silence at the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" because that was the time (in Britain and France) when the armistice became effective. The two minutes recall World War I and World War II. Before 1945 the silence was for one minute, and today some ceremonies still only have one minute of silence despite this.

In the United Kingdom, although two minutes' silence is observed on November 11 itself, the main observance is on the second Sunday of November, Remembrance Sunday. Ceremonies are held at local communities' War Memorials, usually organized by local branches of the Royal British Legion – an association for ex-servicemen. Typically, poppy wreaths are laid by local organizations including the Royal British Legion, ex-servicemen organizations, cadet forces, the Scouts, Guides, Boys' Brigade, St John Ambulance and the Salvation Army. "The Last Post" is played by a trumpeter or bugler, two minutes' silence is observed and broken by a trumpeter playing "Rouse" (commonly confused with "Reveille", which has little to do with the service). A minute's or two minutes' silence is also frequently incorporated into church services on that day. The main commemoration is held in Whitehall in central London, where Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom the Queen, Prime Minister, and other senior political and military figures join with veterans to lay wreaths at the Cenotaph.

In Canada the day is a holiday for federal government employees. However, for private business, provincial governments, and schools, its status varies by province. In Western and Atlantic Canada it is a general holiday. In Ontario and Quebec, it is not a general holiday, although corporations that are federally registered may make the day a full holiday, or instead designate a provincially-recognized holiday on a different day. Schools usually hold assemblies for the first half of the day or on the school day prior with various presentations concerning the remembrance of the war dead. Thousands of people gather near the National War Memorial in Ottawa. Among the crowd, war veterans pay their respects to fallen sailors, soldiers, and airmen. The "Act of Remembrance" includes the playing of the Last Post, recitation of the Ode of Remembrance, which is a verse of the poem "For the Fallen" by Laurence Binyon, followed by Reveille. Adrienne Clarkson, then Governor General of Canada, leads the 2004 Remembrance Day ceremonies in Ottawa, Ontario

The [Royal Canadian Legion] recommends that Canadians observe 2 minutes of silence.

In South Africa, the day is not a public holiday. Commemoration ceremonies are usually held on the following Sunday, at which, as with Australia and Britain, the "Last Post" is played by a bugler followed by the observation of a two-minute silence. The two biggest commemoration ceremonies to mark the event in South Africa are held in Johannesburg, at the Cenotaph (where it has been held for 84 consecutive years), and at the War Memorial at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.

In Australia Remembrance Day is always observed on November 11, although the day is not a public holiday. Services are held at 11am at war memorials in suburbs and towns across the country, at which the "Last Post" is played by a bugler and a one-minute silence is observed. In recent decades, however, Remembrance Day has been partly eclipsed by ANZAC Day (April 25) as the national day of war commemoration.

Veterans Day is celebrated in the United States on the same date, but the function of the observance elsewhere is more closely matched by Memorial Day in May. In the United States and some other allied nations November 11 was formerly known as "'Armistice Day"'; in the United States it was given its new name after the end of World War II.

For Anglican and Roman Catholic Christianity Christians, there is a coincidental but appropriate overlap of Remembrance Day with the feast of St. Martin's Day St. Martin of Tours, a saint famous for putting aside his life as a soldier and turning to the peace-filled life of a monk. Statues or images associated with St. Martin are for this reason sometimes used as symbols of Remembrance Day in religious contexts (e.g., the Anglican Cathedral of Montreal).

In Germany, Armistice or Remembrance Day is unknown. Public memory of World War I in Germany is generally scarce. Moreover, November 11 would be seen as an inappropriate date for such a holiday, as it traditionally marks the beginning of the German carnival. However, "Volkstrauertag" is commemorated. Originally this was on the fifth Sunday before Easter, but since 1952, has been celebrated two Sundays before the beginning of Advent. It has never been celebrated in the church since both the major German churches have their own festivals for commemorating the dead (All Souls Day in the case of the RC church, "Ewigkeitssonntag", or "Eternity Sunday" in the case of the Lutheranism Lutheran church. Both festivals also fall in November.)

In Poland, November 11 marks the celebration of Independence Day, since it was on 1918-11-11 that Poland regained its independence after being Partitions of Poland divided between Russia, Prussia and Austria for 123 years.

===The poppies===
Poppies are sold every year as an act of remembrance to fallen soldiers at war.

The poppy's significance to Remembrance Day is a result of Canadian military physician John McCrae's poem "In Flanders Fields". The poppy emblem was chosen because of the poppies that bloomed across some of the worst battlefields of Flanders in World War I, their red color an appropriate symbol for the bloodshed of trench warfare. A Frenchwoman by the name of Madame E. Guérin introduced the widely used artificial poppies given out today. Some people choose to wear White poppy white poppies, which emphasizes a desire for peaceful alternatives to military action. The sale of red poppies raises funds to help ex-servicemen - the sale of white poppies does not, but does support peace work and education. Until 1996, poppies were made by disabled veterans in Canada, but they have since been made by a private contractor.

In England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland the poppies are the flat Earl Haig variety with a leaf, and in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Scotland the poppies are curled at the petals with no leaf.

In Sri Lanka in the inter-war years, there were rival sales of yellow "Suriya" (portia tree) flowers by the Suriya-Mal Movement on Remembrance Day, since funds from poppy sales were not used for Sri Lankan ex-service personnel but were repatriated to Britain. However, nowadays poppy sales are used for indigenous ex-service personnel.