WASHINGTON: Even those who decline to watch the inevitable replay of planes barrelling into buildings will have a hard time forgetting what day it is Wednesday.

Sept 11 will stare back from the face of a wristwatch, the page of a calendar, the bottom of the computer screen, the top of the morning newspaper — an anniversary demanding recognition from a country not quite sure how to give it. And there will be little rhyme or reason to how most people choose to remember a date few had the chance to forget.

An eternal flame will light in New York, bells will peal in Alaska, porch lights will burn in Kansas. Some neighbours in a suburb of Washington will march in a parade; in Orlando, Fla., they’ll gather with candles at dusk on their front lawns. San Franciscans will line up to give blood. SWAT teams in Indiana will demonstrate their public safety prowess. Buses and trains will run with headlights on in Atlanta; Charlotte, N.C.; Houston; San Mateo, California; and Spokane, Wash. Fire trucks will blow their horns in Waco, Texas. In Honolulu, thousands of children will spell “Aloha 9/11” on a stadium field. And all over the country, Sunday pulpits will stir with Wednesday morning words of comfort.

“Most anniversaries have a culturally relevant tradition that tells us the right way to do it — a visit to a grave, a cake for a birthday — and not a tremendous amount of innovation is required,” said Dr Paul Ofman, a New York psychologist at RHR International, a management consulting firm. “Here we have no tradition, nothing to hold on to. As a nation, we’ll have to figure out what works.”

Honouring Sept 11 is a national duty that came with no set of instructions, a collective bowing of heads with no director. The observances will move haphazardly through the day, much as the tragedy did, with the ceremonies most sweeping in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, the sites of destruction.

At 8:46 am, the moment of the first attack, five bagpipe-and- drum processions marching from each of New York’s boroughs will arrive at ground zero as the city pauses for a moment of silence. New York Governor George Pataki will recite the Gettysburg Address; former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani will lead a reading of the names of the nearly 3,000 who perished in New York. “Taps” will play.

While the World Trade Center site will be the focus of the commemoration, virtually none of New York’s cultural institutions, houses of worship, fire stations or community organizations plan to pass the day without note. Even Saks Fifth Avenue’s flagship store has emptied its windows, leaving only signs that say “We Remember.”

In Washington, a day of memorial will begin at the National Cathedral with an 8 am interfaith service led by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. A bell will toll at the time of each attack.

But the eyes of the nation’s capital will focus on the Pentagon, the point of impact restored by workers who laboured around the clock for much of the past year, protesting when government officials ordered them to take Christmas off. Some 12,000 people, including President Bush — who will fly to New York afterward — and several who were injured in the attacks and survivors of those killed are expected to turn out for a moment of silence at 9:39 am, when the plane struck. The huge flag that hung over the building’s wounds that day will be reinstalled at the same spot.

In Pennsylvania, as many as 50,000 are expected at a memorial for the passengers of Flight 93, whose rebellion probably foiled an attack on a fourth building. White House staffers who believe that plane may have been headed their way intend to gather on the mansion’s lawn in special tribute.

Surely, the day will be hardest for survivors of the attacks and loved ones of those who perished. While some plan to return to the sites, others could not stay far enough away. Among those present at the Pentagon will be Wayne Sinclair, 55, who installs computers for the Army and was severely burned that day.

“Sometimes I’ve found it’s better to discuss this and get it off your mind,” he said. “But some people can’t. Too many hard memories. Several say they are staying home, not going to work or anything. They just want to be by themselves and kind of sit and relax and don’t think about the day.”

But it will be difficult not to. Television coverage will continue round-the-clock. The memorials will stretch through the week with displays of acknowledgment so eclectic that from afar, it might look like the Fourth of July.

Singers Roberta Flack and Randy Travis will perform at Constitution Hall. An enormous flag will cover the US Capitol lawn. Three blocks from the White House, a candlelight vigil will fill Freedom Plaza. Fireworks will light the sky in Des Moines, Iowa. An American Bald Eagle named Freedom — once injured but nursed back to health — will be released into the wilds of Missouri.

In effect, Sept 11 was an attack on the American workplace — the towers, the Pentagon, the planes themselves — and businesses were finding diverse ways to help workers cope. Some companies disallowed travel on Sept 11 out of caution, some made travel voluntary while others held to business-as-usual as a symbol of the nation’s corporate strength, according to the Human Resources Management Association of Chicago. Corporations in Chicago will suspend their dress codes so employees can wear red, white and blue.

But as the day approaches, the notion of normalcy seems far- fetched. Even the weather — clear, and crisp and blue in the East — serves as a reminder of that pre-autumn day. Authors scheduled inspirational readings at bookstores. Churches promise to open their doors all day for meditation and prayer.

Renewed anger seems inevitable, and some will use the day to urge tolerance. Next to an Italian restaurant in a fading strip mall outside St. Louis, the storefront Islamic Information Center plans an open house throughout the afternoon, with a nearby mosque conducting a unity prayer service at dusk.

“For many, the anniversary will be so large, so sadness- inducing, so anxiety-provoking, people should not be surprised to find themselves more emotional, preoccupied, deep in thought and reflective — and unsure what to do with all of it,” psychologist Ofman said.

There are calls for continuity. Nearly 200,000 people have signed a website petition asking to declare Sept 11 a national holiday. Others favour a single synchronized minute when the entire nation would pause, freeways would come to a halt, drivers would step out of their cars, television stations would go dark and radio airwaves mute.

But until then, plaques will be dedicated and trees planted. The ranks of three women who have stood with flags on a boulevard in Tampa every Friday afternoon since Sept 11 are expected to swell to 30,000.

Children will release doves, college students will form a human flag on a football field, symphonies will play a worldwide Rolling Requiem, an abridged performance of Mozart’s “Requiem,” starting in each time zone at 8:36 am, the anniversary of the moment the first plane struck the World Trade Center’s north tower.—Dawn/The Los Angeles Times News Service.