BellaOnline Forums Travel and Culture English Culture Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday

In England the First World War and people lost in combat are remembered through Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday. People wear poppies in remembrance, participate in two minutes' silence and often attend, watch or listen to services commemorating those who fought for their country.

Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday

I have just returned from the ceremony at the war memorial in my town. There were more people there than I'd seen previously.

In your article you say "The poppy is a classical symbol of death and resurrection."

I thought the poppy was chosen because it grew profusely on the disturbed ground of the first world war battlefields in France and because of its short life, it dies when plucked.

Yes Peter you are right - that poppies thrive on disturbed soil, probably most famously remembered in the poem In Flanders Fields by John McCrae.