Even today the poppy is identified with loss and commemoration. In this country artificial red poppies are handed out for donation by veterans and worn on the lapels of jackets on Veterans day, and Memorial day. You will also find poppies adorning lapels on Armistice day ( the French also call it Veterans day), in Great Britain, New Zealand and Australia. In most commonwealth countries it is also customary on Armistice day, to observe two minutes of silence at 11:00 am on November 11, in honor of the dead and wounded of World War 1. The Sunday following Armistice Day, is called Remembrance Sunday in Great Britain, a wreath is placed at the Cenotaph, a memorial to WW1 in London . Traditionally poppies are also worn at this ceremony, which is attended by the Royal monarch, members of the government, the prime minister, members of the royal family, and the public. In Australia it has become a tradition to place poppies next to the names of the fallen at the “Memorial Roll of Honour wall” in the “Hall of Memory Memorial on Armistice Day.” Canada and Ireland celebrate Remembrance day on November 11, Which is also the day that South Africa celebrates Poppy day. The red poppy has come to symbolize the lives lost in all wars fought since that fateful summer morning in August of 1914.
The symbolic and nostalgic value of the poppy was recognized by the allied soldiers during the war. It was common for allied soldiers to collect and press the poppies in the pages of their handbooks and bibles, saved as mementoes, keepsakes and good luck charms.
My grandfather pressed two poppies in the pages of his US Army combat engineers handbook, a photo of which I used for this sites enter button. And recently I found the remains of pressed poppies in a British Engineers handbook from 1915 that I acquired ,and another in a personal pocket bible from an American soldier dated 1917.
As a nation in 2006, we have lost much of our connection to, and reverence for commemorative holidays. Today we are much more inclined to shop or barbeque on Veterans Day then contemplate or commemorate the past and the fallen. Yet almost 100 years after the start of WW1, the Flanders poppy is still a poignant and fitting commemorative symbol. And we should remember that it is the symbol chosen by our ancestors, for the people that they knew, loved, and fought with. This simple, pedestrian wild flower still serves as a mythic bond between us, and those soldiers, ancestors, and loved ones who gave their lives or were wounded in service of their country.
