by James Ruggia
Last updated: 8:39 AM ET, Tue December 3, 2013
On Aug. 14, 2014, commemorations will begin in Europe to mark World War 1, the war Europeans still call The Great War.
Belgium, an unwilling player in the conflict at the time, will be front and center for commemorations over the next four years. Belgium never really stopped commemorating the war.
Every night at 8 p.m. since 1928, people have gathered in the Belgian town of Ypres at the Menim Gate for the Last Post in which buglers play "Taps" and "Reveille"; where prayers and poems are read aloud; a moment of silence is observed and a wreath of poppies is laid for the 55,000 dead whose names are inscribed on the Gate's marble facade.
Participating nations in the war, from Britain and France to Austria and Turkey, will host hundreds of events and exhibitions to remember a war that still influences the world today.
More than two million people are expected to visit Belgium to tour World War 1 sites over the next four years as Europe commemorates a series of brutal centennials in what may be the most horrific war in history. Belgium will spend more than $67 million on related events.
The town of Ypres where about 500,000 American, Australian, Austrian, British, Canadian, German, Indian and New Zealand soldiers died expects its WW1 monuments and battle fields to see visitation go from the normal 350,000 per year to 500,000.
Museums, events and exhibitions will be focused on the Great War including Ypres Flanders Fields Museum, which opened in 2012 in the town's medieval Cloth Hall.
Ypres' St. George's Memorial Church, the Essex Farm Cemetery and Dressing Station, the American Cemetery and the 154 other cemeteries in Ypres including the German Cemetery at Langemark where some 44,000 dead German soldiers are interred in an area about the size of a football field will also be central points of commemoration.
The Memorial Museum of Passchendaele 1917, Zonnebeke and Liege will also have events. And Mons will open a Memorial Museum in 2015 when it will be a European Capital of Culture.
Ypres and the Flanders Fields Museum are the place to begin World War 1 itineraries. The full list of events commemorating the war in Belgium can be found at www.VisitFlanders.us/what-to-do/events/great-war-centenary/events_2014-2018.jsp.
Most of the Americans who died in the war died in France and the French too will be remembering the war. Battles in France such as Verdun, the Marne and the Somme can be visited in combination with Belgian sites on four routes listed at www.remembrancetrails-northernfrance.com.
A full schedule of French Commemoration events can be found at www.centenaire.org.
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