Poppies for Rememberance
I love covering various events throughout the year, but Veterans Day is a different experience. This year I became a part of a ceremony, given a poppy pin as a family member of a veteran.
How did the poppy flower come to symbolize the sacrifices of veterans?
It’s more popular in the UK but is growing here in the US. The poppy flower commemorates veterans, and it started with World War I inspired by the poem, “In Flanders Fields”.
In Flanders Fields By John McCrae
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.
This later inspired an American woman to write her own poem in response, ‘We Shall Keep the Faith.’
Oh! you who sleep in Flanders Fields,
Sleep sweet - to rise anew!
We caught the torch you threw
And holding high, we keep the Faith
With All who died.We cherish, too, the poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led;
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies,
But lends a lustre to the red
Of the flower that blooms above the dead
In Flanders Fields.And now the Torch and Poppy Red
We wear in honor of our dead.
Fear not that ye have died for naught;
We'll teach the lesson that ye wrought
In Flanders Fields.
She vowed to wear a red poppy daily to remember our veterans who served in the war.
The poppy flourished in Europe but around the world has a different meaning.
You’ll see them often around veteran-related holidays, given out to veterans and their families.
I never knew the exact meaning of the poppy until one of the veterans at the event explained more to me, and I find it so special to share this with other veteran families.
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