This Monday May 25th is Memorial Day, a day of honoring our fallen heroes. I grew up in Canada, the day that we would honor our war dead is November 11th. It became a day or remembrance in November 1919. - the Armistice was signed on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 with the signing by the Germans at the end of WWI. We would pin a red poppy to our jacket lapels, that was purchased from a Veteran selling them at the mall or on the streets.
I lived across from a cemetery, and on Remembrance Day, I would walk across and think about the soldiers who passed on, I wanted to share a silent moment in memory of them and their loved ones.
The red poppy that we would wear to commemorate the fallen symbolized Flander's Fields, the burial ground for the fallen soldiers. The red of the poppies and the blood shed inspired a poem by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD, a field surgeon who tended the wounded and dying.
In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918) Canadian Army
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.
Every country has a day set aside to honor their war dead, but it should be everyday that we honor them for their courage, loyalty and service to their countries.
Image: Single White Poppy by david.nikonvscanon
The red poppy that we would wear to commemorate the fallen symbolized Flander's Fields, the burial ground for the fallen soldiers. The red of the poppies and the blood shed inspired a poem by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD, a field surgeon who tended the wounded and dying.
In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918) Canadian Army
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.
Every country has a day set aside to honor their war dead, but it should be everyday that we honor them for their courage, loyalty and service to their countries.
Image: Single White Poppy by david.nikonvscanon
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A beautiful poem for a very ugly subject, the war dead. We need an updated one for the troops killed in Iraq, something that lifts their almost invisible sacrfice above the loud fray of the dreadful economy, mortgage crisis, etc. I hate war and I particularly hate the war now, but I firmly believe in remembrance. An important blog.
Thank you Erin. You are right that we need one for the troops in Iraq. We are reliving our grandparents' and parents' lives, a war, a depression and a change in thinking.