Remembrance Day is observed in many Commonwealth countries, including Canada, to remember those who died in military service, and honour those who served in wartime. It is observed across Canada each year on 11 November — the anniversary of the Armistice agreement of 1918 that ended the First World War. On Remembrance Day, public ceremonies and church services often include the playing of “Last Post,” a reading of the fourth stanza of the poem “For the Fallen,” and two minutes of silence at 11 a.m. Wreaths are laid at local war memorials and assemblies are held in schools. Millions of Canadians wear red poppy pins in the weeks leading up to and on 11 November in remembrance.
The Poppy
The symbol of Remembrance Day is the red poppy, which grows on the First World War battlefields of Flanders (in Belgium) and northern France. As the artillery barrages began to churn the earth in late 1914, the fields of Flanders and northern France saw scores of red poppies appear.
The first person to use the poppy as a symbol of remembrance was American Moina Michael, who had been inspired by Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae’s poem “In Flanders Fields.” Michael pledged in 1918 “always to wear a red poppy of Flanders Fields as a sign of remembrance and the emblem of ‘keeping the faith with all who died,’” referencing a line in the poem.
Members of the Canadian Legion sell the poppies and the funds raised go to help those Veteran's in need. The tradition in many places in Canada (including our local war
memorial) is to place their poppies on on the memorial after the
ceremony.
Mom's Grampa was in the First World War in the trenches and as an ambulance driver. He met Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae who wrote "In Flander's Fields".
Mom will be watching the wreath layings on TV this year and we will hang out with her!
