Remembrance day

On remembrance day members of the armed forces (soldiers) are commemorated.
The other common name for this day is Armistice Day which marks the date and time when armies in general stop fighting. November 11th at 11am in 1918 (the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month) marks the end of the first world war in the UK - this date and time was made into Remembrence Day in commonwealth countries.

The Ode of Remembrance:
They went with songs to the battle, they were young.
Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.
Lest we forget.




The poppy's significance to Remembrance Day is a result of Canadian military physician John McCrae's poem In Flanders Fields. The poppy emblem was chosen because of the poppies that bloomed across some of the worst battlefields of Flanders in World War I, their red colour an appropriate symbol for the bloodshed of trench warfare. A Frenchwoman, Anna E. Guérin, introduced the widely used artificial poppies given out today. Some people choose to wear white poppies, which emphasises a desire for peaceful alternatives to military action.
In Canadian tradition, the poppy is worn by many members of society during the two weeks prior to November 11. Until 1996, poppies were made by disabled veterans in Canada, but they have since been made by a private contractor.