Remembrance Day
World War 1 ended on November 11th, 1918. So, every year on November 11th at 11:11AM people gather and take a moment of silence to remember the fallen. This is a picture of a gathering in Victoria, BC Canada (my hometown).
In November around the world many people wear a poppy flower on their lapel as a symbol to remember all of our fallen soldiers who died to protect our freedoms. The poppy pin we wear represents the poppies that grow in Flanders fields in Europe. This tradition comes from a poem that a soldier John McRae wrote in May of 1915 after his friend died. He was looking around at the graves of his friends and saw the red poppies growing up through the ground.
The poem goes like this:
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.
Since that poem the poppy has been a symbol of courage and to remember all of those that came before.
Lest we forget...
