Today, the poppy starts its life at a 176-year-old paper mill owned by James Cropper, located in Burneside, on the edge of the British Lake District in northwest England. Originally made from silk, today’s memorial poppy is made of paper, using both traditional and modern-day techniques. The flower is also immortalised in the famous poem In Flanders Fields by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, a Canadian physician who penned the following lines in 1915 after witnessing his friend die on the battlefield: “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.” Nine million paper poppies were distributed in the first Poppy Appeal in 1921, raising money for veterans’ employment and housing. The red paper poppies are distributed by volunteers in the Poppy Appeal organised by the Royal British Legion to raise donations for veterans and the Armed Forces community. Remembrance Day is also known as Poppy Day. Poppies are also a common sight in war memorials in Central Europe, especially around 11 November, the “11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month” when Great War hostilities ended in 1918. Red remembrance poppies are well recognised all over Europe but mainly worn in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The poppy is traditionally worn on the left side of one’s jacket, as close to the heart as possible. As a tribute to the fallen, remembrance poppies have been worn since 1921, the year the Royal British Legion was founded. The common poppy, Papaver rhoeas, thrives in rich soil such as the grimly scorched earth found in First World War battlefields in Flanders, Belgium and many parts of France.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |