Why we wear poppies on Memorial Day

[Guest guest]

Sent this 3 years ago; it’s still important and true.

Respectfully,

Abrahamson

When I was a child, my dad always came home on Memorial Day wearing a paper poppy stuck in the pocket flap of his game warden uniform. I never knew what the poppy represented but later learned that they are sold as a fundraiser for disabled veterans. With the magic of the internet, we can quickly learn the origins of the poppies to commemorate the fallen in WWI.

Please join me this Memorial Day in simple gratitude to and remembrance of the soldiers and families who made the ultimate sacrifice for the freedom we now enjoy.

Thank you vets.

( E. Abrahamson, D.C.)

Flanders is the name for the western part of Belgium, a region blood soaked by many wars. Therein exists a cemetery for 368 American soldiers from WWI. It is hard for us to imagine one of our family buried in a foreign land having fought in a war we couldn’t see on TV and films.

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.

Symbolism of the Poppy

The red petals stand for the vast outpouring of blood;

the yellow and black center, the mud and desolation of all battlefields; the green of the stem is symbolic of the forests, meadows and fields where generations of Americans have perished to make generations free. The stem represents the courage and determination of our fallen warriors. The assembled product, a flower, is a symbol of Resurrection, which is sure to follow.

The papaver rhoeus (or poppy to most of us) was brought to Europe by the Romans. The poppy thrived in the fields of Flanders. In 1915 Canadian Col. McRae wrote the poem " In Flanders Fields " . In 1918 McRae died and among his dying words were " Tell them this, if ye break faith with us who die, we shall not sleep " . American poet Moina was so touched by these words that she vowed to wear a poppy for the remainder of her life. In France, Madame Yvonee Guerin proposed the women make artificial poppies to raise funds for the destitute and disabled. In America, disabled and hospitalized veterans began making the artificial poppies and it became a project of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. The workers were paid a penny a piece for them. In 1924 the V.F.W. copyrighted the designation " Buddy " Poppy. The V.F.W. purchases the poppies from the disabled and hospitalized veterans who make them and offer them to the public for donation. All monies raised are returned to needy veterans and their families through various programs. The poppy is generally accepted as a symbol of remembrance of those who have died in wars.

More Info:

McCrae's " In Flanders Fields " remains to this day one of the most memorable war poems ever written. It is a lasting legacy of the terrible battle in the Ypres salient in the spring of 1915. Here is the story of the making of that poem:

Although he had been a doctor for years and had served in the South African War, it was impossible to get used to the suffering, the screams, and the blood here, and Major McCrae had seen and heard enough in his dressing station to last him a lifetime.

As a surgeon attached to the 1st Field Artillery Brigade, Major McCrae, who had joined the McGill faculty in 1900 after graduating from the University of Toronto, had spent seventeen days treating injured men -- Canadians, British, Indians, French, and Germans -- in the Ypres salient.

It had been an ordeal that he had hardly thought possible. McCrae later wrote of it:

" I wish I could embody on paper some of the varied sensations of that seventeen days... Seventeen days of Hades! At the end of the first day if anyone had told us we had to spend seventeen days there, we would have folded our hands and said it could not have been done. "

One death particularly affected McCrae. A young friend and former student, Lieut. is Helmer of Ottawa, had been killed by a shell burst on 2 May 1915. Lieutenant Helmer was buried later that day in the little cemetery outside McCrae's dressing station, and McCrae had performed the funeral ceremony in the absence of the chaplain.

The next day, sitting on the back of an ambulance parked near the dressing station beside the Canal de l'Yser, just a few hundred yards north of Ypres, McCrae vented his anguish by composing a poem. The major was no stranger to writing, having authored several medical texts besides dabbling in poetry.

In the nearby cemetery, McCrae could see the wild poppies that sprang up in the ditches in that part of Europe, and he spent twenty minutes of precious rest time scribbling fifteen lines of verse in a notebook.

A young soldier watched him write it. Cyril Allinson, a twenty-two year old sergeant-major, was delivering mail that day when he spotted McCrae. The major looked up as Allinson approached, then went on writing while the sergeant-major stood there quietly. " His face was very tired but calm as we wrote, " Allinson recalled. " He looked around from time to time, his eyes straying to Helmer's grave. "

When McCrae finished five minutes later, he took his mail from Allinson and, without saying a word, handed his pad to the young NCO. Allinson was moved by what he read:

" The poem was exactly an exact description of the scene in front of us both. He used the word blow in that line because the poppies actually were being blown that morning by a gentle east wind. It never occurred to me at that time that it would ever be published. It seemed to me just an exact description of the scene. "

In fact, it was very nearly not published. Dissatisfied with it, McCrae tossed the poem away, but a fellow officer retrieved it and sent it to newspapers in England. The Spectator, in London, rejected it, but Punch published it on 8 December 1915.

A website shows photos and information:

http://www.greatwar.nl/frames/default-poppies.html

On Memorial Day, we remember these heroes and ALL OTHERS who have given their lives for the cause of freedom. This list is by no means complete:

American Revolution ---- 4,435

War of 1812 ---- 2,260

Mexican War ---- 13,283

Civil War ---- 558,052

Spanish American War ---- 2,446

World War I ---- 116,708

World War II ---- 407,316

Korean Conflict ---- 33,651

Vietnam War ---- 58,168

Gulf War ---- 293

Lebanon ---- 254

Grenada ---- 18

Panama ---- 40

Somalia ---- 29

USS Cole ---- 17

Operation Enduring Freedom ---- (ongoing)

Operation Iraqi Freedom ---- (ongoing)