Back to gallery

Trucks in streets of London

Have you noticed a Red Poppy to the truck? It is that time of year...11th of November, British people honor fallen troops by wearing a crimson poppy

The poppy has been a symbol of Remembrance for over 100 years. The poppy became a symbol of Remembrance and hope for a peaceful future in the aftermath of the First World War.

 

As the story goes, during World War I, after a particularly bloody battle in the fields of Flanders in Belgium, thousands of bright red flowers appeared. Poet John McCrae, a lieutenant colonel in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces, who had just lost a friend to the war, was so moved by this spontaneous bloom that he wrote a poem about the flowers' resilience, titled “In Flanders Fields”:

 

In Flanders' fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place: and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

 

We are the dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders' fields.

 

Take up our quarrel with the foe;

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high,

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders' Fields.

 

 

The 1915 poem was instantly popular, inspiring the Royal British Legion—a U.K. charity, which supports veterans and their families to this day—to sell millions of handmade poppies. Thus began the "poppy emblem" and the first Poppy Appeal: a fundraising event to raise money for war vets, held each November in honor of Remembrance Day.

 

Similar to Memorial Day in the States, Remembrance Day, or "Poppy Day," falls on November 11, and honors the lives and memories of fallen troops.

 

Text was taken from:

www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a10392...

 

And by the way similarly 11th November we honor our fallen troops in Latvia...As they participated in the same war against the same enemy but in the other part of the world.

 

 

 

992 views
41 faves
22 comments
Uploaded on October 31, 2024
Taken on October 28, 2024