The Red Emblem Of Remembrance

On the eleventh day of the eleventh month we honour the courageous people who have been killed in war defending our country and defending our future. The actual day originally marked the symbolic end of World war I in 1918 when the armistice was signed on that date at eleven o’clock in the morning.

Since then, however, it has become the day we show respect for the losses suffered by families and communities during both World Wars, the Korean War and conflicts in which our military forces have participated including peace-keeping missions.

More than 1,500,000 Canadians have served our country and over 100,000 have died. They sacrificed their lives to uphold peace and freedom and that is why we acknowledge and remember them through services and ceremonies as well as our own private thoughts. To demonstrate this, we wear poppies over our hearts, because they represent the flowers that originally started to grow over soldiers’ graves almost 100 years ago. It is supposed to be the only flower that can grow in the contaminated soil churned up and destroyed by bombs and littered with the rubble of destruction.

Our own Canadian military doctor, Major John McCrae, second in command of the 1st Brigade Canadian Field Artillery, wrote the poem, “In Flanders Fields” when his good friend, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer was killed instantly by a cannon shell:

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…

After reading the poem, Moina Michael was so moved by it, she got the idea of wearing a poppy as a symbol of remembrance of the fallen.

Today, poppies are provided everywhere and distributed for donations to help needy veterans, members retired from service and their dependants. No amount of money is mandatory, because the red flower’s purpose is to perpetuate the idea of Remembrance.

Donations, however, are put into Poppy Trust Funds. The activities the funds support include assisting veterans and their families with purchasing medical appliances, medical research, training, bursaries to children and grandchildren of veterans, as well as accommodation, care facilities, meals, transport and services for the disabled as well as veterans and seniors.

Approximately 18 million poppies are sold each year and over $8 million is distributed annually. So not only do poppies remind us of the fallen, they also help us perform good deeds. That is why we must never “break faith” with those who have made their sacrifice for us. On this day, our moment of silence honours their memory and we will never forget.