In just over a week, it will be Remembrance Day. When I was at school (I left in 1987) almost everybody wore the Haig Fund remembrance poppy from the start of November for about two weeks. The word “poppy” sounds soft but it was a touching symbol of remembering the suffering and sacrifice of previous generations. For the benefit of foreign readers, Remembrance Day is the anniversary of the armistice that ended the Great War. It is the eleventh hour or the eleventh day of the eleventh month each year. The national ceremony of remembrance is led by the Queen the nearest Sunday to this date. It’s normal to wear a poppy as remembrance. This isn’t a tradition in
I’ve noticed that each year, fewer and fewer people wear a poppy. I find this sad. When I was in my early twenties, I always thought that it might be some distant comfort to veterans and surviving relatives of those who died to see younger people recognising their sacrifice and loss. There are still lots of these people around. Also, I honestly believe that there is a need to remember. It’s a cliché that he who doesn’t learn from history is doomed to repeat it. Perhaps it’s not a cliché? After all, the Bush administration seems not to have heard it.
Yesterday in central
Go on, get over the fact that wearing a poppy sounds a bit like like wearing a pansy! This is one of our few clearly honourable traditions and we shouldn’t let it fade away.
8 comments:
I think it is a lovely tradition and one that does need to be kept alive. My great grandfather faught in WW1 and my uncle died in the WW2 but we have no such celebration here. I think this is a fact, but I read once that more men died in the WW1 than in all the wars of the twentieth century put together. It was also the first mechanised war where men were litterally sent out as fodder. Interesting that nearly a hundred years later pretty much the same could be said to be happening. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6111048.stm
It feels like we're turning our backs on those who have fought in current and past conflict. I thought this when I met my soldier a few months ago. I agree that Ireland should have some sort of commemoration. I suspect that not observing the poppy tradition has much more to do with DeValera-style unfocused Brit bashing than anything else. It's time to get over that.
yes I agree but while everything gets wrapped in our (hijacked) version of republicanism it ain't going to happen. Although both Marys (especially Mary I) did move things along against much Sinn Fein/Fianna Fail opposition. However the current administration is fighting a rear guard action against Sinn Fein and went so far two years ago as dig up the 1916 patriots and (i'm serious) parade them around the centre of Dublin to prove how repubican they are. All in a bid to keep SF from gaining seats. The more things change etc...
I think the thing is very few people really respect the reason we have soldiers dying in Iraq, including me. It's not something we thank them for unfortunately, because no one wants them there. It's not their fault, it's Blair's and Bush's. Also, the rememberance of the other war was for the sheer volume of lives lost. It was staggering. They were all so naive in going to their slaughter. It devistated the country for an entire generation. Similar to our actions in Iraq.
I too am against the linking of Poppies (money raised to help conscripted troops) to Iraq.
Have noticed how few poppies are worn in Wales so am glad (in a way) that Manchester lacks them too.
Since writing this, I've noticed that many more people are wearing them. It's still a minority, but it's now a significant minority.
Might the lack of take-up in Wales be an unfocused anti-English thing I wonder like it seems to be in Ireland? If so, it's pretty misguided.
I am wearing my poppy while I visit Ljubljana and felt a bit odd doing so, not being in the UK, but as I returned to the hotel this evening after work, I saw someone else wearing a poppy too.
You mentioned the Haig Fund in your blog. Have you noticed that the poppy has re-branded? It no longer says Haig Fund in the black centre, I guess because no one really knows who Haig was now. It just says Poppy Appeal. You're supposed to buy a new one each year and not wear the one you bought ten years ago ;)
Like you were like wearing a poppy in, like, Slovenia? Dude, you must have, like, looked so “ghey”!
Forgive the dumb yank talk. I’m celebrating the return of sanity to the US electorate by talking dude talk all day.
No, I hadn’t noticed how Field Marshall Haig’s name had been dropped from the appeal. I’d always thought it somewhat strange that the poppy appeal should bear the name of the man who was behind the tactics that caused such immense loss of life, so the change rather makes sense to me.
I can reassure my reader(s) that I don’t wear the same poppy year after year! The general rough treatment that I seem to mete out to my clothing means that they generally last a few days before requiring replacement.
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