for remembrance sunday why do they use a poppy?

Question

why not use a different flower,i heard it was something to do with a field when we knew we won the war or something on them lines???

Answer 1

Because Poppies grew where the soldiers fell and died, it's a symbol of the slaughter of WW1.

Answer 2

You would need to know a bit about the first world war 1914-1918. The terrible slaughter of soldiers in the battles in Flanders , the fields awash with blood , and the fields also covered in wild poppies. So the poppy became symbolic of the blood and loss of life. The tradition has carried on through the second world war and up to the present time.

Answer 3

Scarlet poppies (popaver rhoeas) grow naturally in conditions of disturbed earth throughout Western Europe. The destruction brought by the Napoleonic wars of the early 19th Century transformed bare land into fields of blood red poppies, growing around the bodies of the fallen soldiers.

In late 1914, the fields of Northern France and Flanders were once again ripped open as the First World War raged through Europe's heart.

The significance of the poppy as a lasting memorial symbol to the fallen was realised by the Canadian surgeon John McCrae in his poem "In Flanders Fields". The poppy came to represent the immeasurable sacrifice made by his comrades and quickly became a lasting memorial to those who died in the First World War and later conflicts.

The White Poppy

The white poppy was first introduced by the Women's Co-operative Guild in 1933 and was intended as a lasting symbol for peace and an end to all wars.

Worn on Armistice Day, now Remembrance Sunday, the white poppy was produced by the Co-operative Wholesale Society because the Royal British Legion had refused to be associated with its manufacture.

While the white poppy was never intended to offend the memory of those who died in the Great War, many veterans felt that its significance undermined their contribution and the lasting meaning of the red poppy. Such was the seriousness of this issue that some women lost their jobs in the 1930s for wearing white poppies.

In Flanders Fields

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.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

John McCrae (1872 - 1918)

Answer 4

The poppys were the first flowers to grow on Flanders field (Where some battles were fought) after the war.

Answer 5

" In Flanders Fields where Poppies grow......." haven't you ever heard the verse. It recalls the fields where thousands of French and German troops were killed in vicious battle during WW1
The fields were put aside as a cemetery in remembrance of these man and the battles they fought. The Poppies fill the fields every years, like a symbol.

Answer 6

i thought it was to symbolise the blood lost but apparantley

Poppies are red flowers which are worn to show others that you are remembering those who died for their country.

The reason poppies are used is because they are the flowers which grew on the battle fields after the World War 1 ended.

Poppies are also used to raise money for all the old soldiers who are still alive.

The organisation in charge of looking after older soldiers, or veterans, is called the British Legion.

Each year, volunteers will sell these poppies in the street all over Britain.

Answer 7

The poppy is the symbol of Flanders Field.

Answer 8

Poppies grow best on disturbed ground, and in the fields where all the fighting took places there are now thousands and thousands of poppies. Have a look for some pictures on the net, it's a very moving sight to see all these beautiful flowers on the site where so many died defending their country.

Answer 9

The poppy is used due to the ww1 poem In Flanders Fields, where poppies stand row by row to commemorate the war dead.

Answer 10

In the era of WW1 the fields of Flanders in France were always alive with the poppy and they were in corn fields everywhere. It used to be the same here before the wider uses of weed killers on farms.

Answer 11

It is to do with the poppy fields at Flanders, and I think that when they have the remembrance service every year they release one petal for every soldier who has given his life in conflict.