Remembrance Day

November 11th is Remembrance Day in Canada, the day we commemorate the sacrifices made by our armed forces during war.

In the days leading up to and including Remembrance Day (the official period starts on the last Friday of October), you may see people wearing poppy pins like the ones pictured above on their left lapels. Poppies became associated with the war dead during the time of Napoleon when it was noted that they bloomed in fields where battles had taken place. This association was cemented when Canadian soldier and doctor John McCrae wrote the poem In Flanders Fields:

Here’s the text of 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.