Veterans — local and across the nation — will be honored for their service during events Saturday — Veterans Day.

The American Legion Post No. 15 Auxiliary’s annual Veterans Day observance is set for 11 a.m. Saturday at Veterans Memorial Park on East Third Street in Washington, adjacent to Jack’s Creek. The keynote speaker will be the Rev. Tierian “Randy” Cash, the American Legion’s national chaplain and member of the North Carolina Department of the American Legion, according to Betsey Lee Hodges, president of the local auxiliary unit.

The color guard of the Greenville-based General George Washington chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution North Carolina Society is scheduled to participate in the service, according to the NCSSAR website. Members of the Daughters of the American Revolution’s Major Reading Blount chapter also will participate, along with musician Chris Furlough and others, Hodges said.

“The Daughters of the American Revolution will provide special support to Vietnam veterans,” Hodges said.

Boy Scouts will be camping at Veterans Memorial Park Friday night and Saturday night. They are scheduled to participate in the Veterans Day service and conduct a flag-burning ceremony later Saturday.

Most Veterans Day observances began on the 11^th hour of the 11^th day of the 11^th month. That specific time, date and month reflect when hostilities ceased during World War I. Veterans Day originated as Armistice Day on Nov. 11, 1919, a year after World War I ended.

In 1926, Congress passed a resolution for an annual observance, and Nov. 11 became a national holiday in 1938. In 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower changed the name from Armistice Day to Veterans Day.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ website includes this statement about Veterans Day: “World War I — known at the time as ‘The Great War’ — officially ended when the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, in the Palace of Versailles outside the town of Versailles, France. However, fighting ceased seven months earlier when an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, between the Allied nations and Germany went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. For that reason, November 11, 1918, is generally regarded as the end of ‘the war to end all wars.’”

According to the University of North Carolina’s Carolina Demography website, there are about 736,000 veterans living in North Carolina, about 9.8 percent of the state’s population. Nine percent of those veterans are women, according to the website. The website notes that 2,600 of the state’s veterans served in three wars, 70,000 veterans served in two wars and 475,000 veterans served in one war.