Remembrance Day (also known as Poppy Day, Armistice Day and Veterans Day) is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth countries since the end of World War I to remember the members of their armed forces who have died in the line of duty. Observed on 11 November, the day commemorates the official end of World War I in 1918 when hostilities formally ended “at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month” of 1918 with the German signing of the Armistice.
The red remembrance poppy has become a familiar emblem of Remembrance Day from the poem “In Flanders Fields” by Canadian physician and Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae. These poppies bloomed across some of the worst battlefields of Flanders in World War I, their brilliant red colour – a symbol for the blood spilled in the war.
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.
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