Poppy Day
Veteran’s Day, Remembrance Day, Armistice Day, Poppy Day
11th November 1918
The U.S. holiday of Veteran’s Day is known as Remembrance Day in Australia, Canada, Colombia, UK and Ireland, as Poppy Day in South Africa and Malta, and as Armistice Day in the U.K., New Zealand and many other Commonwealth countries. It is observed on November 11 to recall the end of World War I on that date in 1918, at 11:00 — the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. It is a day that commemorates the sacrifice of veterans and civilians in World War I and other wars.
British, Canadian, South African and ANZAC traditions include two minutes of silence at 11:00 on November 11. The two minutes recall World War I and World War II — before 1945 the silence was for one minute, the second minute was added for the second world war.
In the United Kingdom, the two minutes’ silence is observed on November 11. The main observance, however, is on the second Sunday of November, Remembrance Sunday. In Australia Remembrance Day is always observed on November 11. Services are held at 11am at war memorials in suburbs and towns across the country, at which the “Last Post” is played by a bugler, and a one-minute silence is observed. (Recently Remembrance Day has been partly eclipsed in Australia by ANZAC Day on April 25 as the national day of war commemoration.)
Veterans Day is celebrated in the United States on November 11th, with government officials paying tribute with wreaths at tombs and cemeteries around the country. Armistice Day was first commemorated in the United States by President Woodrow Wilson in 1919. Congress passed a resolution in 1926 inviting all Americans to observe the day, and made it a legal holiday nationwide in 1938. The name of the holiday was changed to Veterans Day in 1954 to honor those who served in all American wars.
For Christians, Remembrance Day overlaps with the feast of St. Martin of Tours, a saint famous for putting aside his life as a soldier and turning to the peace-filled life of a monk.
The poppy plays a significant symbolic role on Remembrance Day because of the famous poem, In Flanders Field, written by the Canadian military physician John McCrae. The poppy bloomed on some of the worst battlefields in Flanders, and its red color appropriately recalls the bloodshed of trench warfare.