My urge to ask this was sparked after I saw a Facebook post. I'm in what is essential the general chat of my town, one of these "Town-name, State" groups where people post local political events and gossip, advertise community services, so on. Today there was a post about how "disgraceful" it was that the local paper didn't have a front page dedicated to 9/11. This post has more than 160 likes (big number for my town) and it's only going up. Tons of comments agreeing. I put "disgraceful" in quotes because I think it's worth knowing this is a subjective phrase, and not that I agree or disagree with the application of the term.

Commemoration of 9/11 seems to be a big cultural trend in my area. I've lived in New York my whole life, 90% of it spent less than an hour from the city. I can see the skyline from one of my favorite hikes (Mt. Beacon, which is 70 miles north of the City.) My degree is from SUNY at Albany. My family has lived in NYC or around it for three generations. All of my social media and news outlets are showing bombarding messages of "never forget" and "remember 9/11". I can't say this is the national experience because I don't know. But locally, it's a yearly ritual.

My question is simple: how common was this throughout history? Did American culture ritualize a scheduled yearly remembrance of tragic events like Pearl Harbor outside of calendar days like Pearl Harbor Day? Did newspapers annually memorialize it? I know a similar amount of people died (2,400+ in PH, 3k in 9/11), so I guess this is a comparison? If they did, for how long did this practice continue?

This is a big question and I hope the mods don't remove it. This is an emotional question for me and very sensitive to my community.

I'm also sorry if ritualize is the wrong phrase, I don't know what else to use here to describe it. It's a yearly thing and I'm curious about if this was a normal occurrence with similar disasters. Also also, sorry for typos. On my phone during lunch break.

Edit: and I fucked up the title. Don't post from your phone, kids.