This web feature was written by Imelda Bargas and produced by the NZHistory.net.nz team.
The peace celebrations* that followed the First World War are not well covered in secondary source material. There is one article on the internet that discusses peace celebrations in England, and one journal article that discusses peace celebrations in Ireland.
- Peace Day (Aftermathww1.com)
- Chapter 3, ‘Parading Memory: Peace Day Celebrations’, in Nuala Johnson, Ireland, the Great War, and the geography of remembrance, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003
Many photographs of the peace celebrations have previously been wrongly identified as depicting celebrations at the time of the armistice in November 1918.
Most of the information in this feature came from contemporary New Zealand, Australian and British newspapers, and files at Archives New Zealand and Wellington City Archives. Other local authorities may also hold relevant records.
* The celebrations following the armistice are often referred to as peace celebrations. The term was also used for celebrations at the end of the South African War and the Second World War. In many countries the peace celebrations took place on a single day which became known as Peace Day or Victory Day.
