In remembrance... to honour the fallen soldiers of past and present

[Genghis Khan]

Whatever part of the former British Commonwealth and/or Europe, the world (I hope) you hail from, chances are your country is commemorating some kind of Remembrance Day, Poppy Day, Veterans Day, Armistice Day or whatever else name it may go by. 

As a Canadian, I always get emotional when honouring soldiers whose lives were lost to pay for our freedom.

I'm hoping this poem needs no introduction:

          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

by John McCrae



On the other hand, there are sadly disturbing individuals who steal money intended for veterans, like this Ajax individual cought on camera.  (Ajax is a city north of Toronto).  Stuff like this leaves me both sad and angry. 
http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20061105/poppy_theft_061105/20061105?hub=TorontoHome



As an educator, I spend a lot of time in schools.  In high schools, typically we have presentations in assemblies where the whole school attends.  Students, under guidance of drama teachers, practice and execute beautiful skits about soldiers and their timeless sacrifices.  Where possible, war veterans show up in the schools and give speeches.  It is highly honoured and emotional.

I am curious how various countries honour their fallen, from the experience of members, regardless of geography or whether or not it is rooted in the traditional Armistice Day.

I'm hoping this thread will last sometime. 



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[Raven]

I don't feel I can add any more to this discussion, except by quoting the following from Laurence Binyon's 'For the Fallen':

    '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. '

 

[Anonymous]

I agree that Remembrance Day is very important and the lost lives of the soldiers who fought for us should be remembered.

It's interesting to read abouot Jon Snow's perspective on the "poppy facism" as he calls it.  It seems that he decided not to wear a poppy for the last few days on Channel Four's 7 O'Clock news as he saw it as merely a gimmick for the TV cameras, however he did wear the poppy off-air.

I am begged to wear an Aids ribbon, a breast cancer ribbon, a Marie Curie flower... You name it, from the Red Cross to the RNIB, they send me stuff to wear to raise awareness, and I don't.

And in those terms, and those terms alone, I do not and will not wear a poppy.

Additionally there is a rather unpleasant breed of poppy fascism out there - 'He damned well must wear a poppy!'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6134906.stm

 

[Albie]

Needles to say, Armistice Day is a big day in the UK and Poppies are sold for many days before the actual day. What grates me is that now we have the white Poppy were some factions seem to think is more apt. Their argument seems to be that by wearing that white poppy is a show of the wearer been of an anti-war stance. I believe that they seem to miss the point of this day been the end of all wars - it seems unfortunate that wars still happened from then on in.

 

[Onhell]

Why poppies?

 

[Albie]

Try this link.

 

[JackKnife]

Try this link.

I never heard myself of any kind of poppy sold on the second week of november in France...but I just asked to someone much older than me who told me such a thing was done after the world war 2 but apparently it stopped long ago.

 

[IronDuke]

Why poppies?

Essentially it's because poppies were the only plant which seemed to grow among the shelled, corpse-filled, gassed, and otherwise distrupted land in France and Belgium during the First World War. The soldiers were quick to notice that where ever poppies grew in abundance they could usually find a body a few feet below the surface of the dirt.
-----

Grandfather served 6 years in WW2 - in Africa, Sicily, Italy, and the Netherlands. He refused to talk to me about what he saw and did there. It was only my father who was able to coax a story out of him once in a while. Suffice to say, I don't know if I could do what he did.
He died long before I was born, but my great-grandfather served during the First War. He was only 14 when he enlisted...I don't know much else aside from that.
My uncle was shot in Korea, but lived to tell the tale.
Some very good friends of mine were permanantly messed up by what they saw and experienced in the former Yugoslavia.
4 of Canada's 42 casualties in the Afghanistan war come from my tiny home town. My father (an ex-reservist and member of the local Legion) escorted their mothers during the ceremonies yesterday.

I post the above simply to explain why I think Nov. 11 is a big deal. I don't wear a poppy out of blind nationalism or the idea that people have fought and died "for their country." I wear it out of respect for my ancestors and those that I know who have been personally touched by the horrors of war. It's just a plastic symbol - make what you want of it. I choose to attach the above signifigance to it, because I don't know how else to show my respect.

 

[Onhell]

One of my uncles served in WWII and the another one was a vietnam vet. they are both long gone now, but yeah, they didn't talk much about it either.

 

[Anonymous]

I don't choose one single day to remember those people who died in past wars. As a history student, this kind of thought is on my mind quite often.

Both my grandfathers (who both don't live anymore now) fought in world war two. One was involved in the battle of Britain, the other in the battle of Stalingrad. The former had quite a bit of luck because his plane was shot down and he survived it, becoming a prisoner of war afterwards. The other one was lucky too, because he was among those people who were flown out of the hollow shell of a city after being wounded. He lost one leg forever, the other one was crippled.
Both hardly ever spoke of the war.

 

[____no5]

Both hardly ever spoke of the war.

my grand father (father side) we was talking very oftenly about the war, I liked to hear him
the other he didn't really fight, so he never really spoke about it

 

[Anonymous]

the other he didn't really fight, so he never really spoke about it

I wouldn't say that the less someone was affected directly by the war, the less he's willing to talk about it. A natural defense mechanism of the conscious mind is to put horrible memories aside. At least so it was in my grandpa's case, who could never make himself even start on the subject. The memories sure haunted him enough inside.

 

[Anonymous]

Well, I know for a fact that the grandfather who was in Stalingrad did fight, and I know for a fact that he was engaged in actions in the Balkans which I don't want to elaborate because of the respect and love I still have for him.
He never spoke to me about the war, the only thing he kept saying was that he never wanted a war again.

 

[IronDuke]

the only thing he kept saying was that he never wanted a war again.

Let's hope his wish is one day fulfilled.


On a side note, my dad told me of something funny which happened when he was a boy. He was born in 1946, just after the end of WW2. When he was 8 or 9 years old, his teacher had his class draw pictures for the upcoming Armistice Day commemoration, they were to be cnetred around the theme of the sacrifice people made during the wars, etc. (typical stuff that still goes on in schools today this time of year)

My dad drew a picture of a soldier who happened to be wearing a Swastika armband (because at 8 years old, all he knew of Germans was from Hollywood movies, so he assumed all Germans did that). The soldier was crying, and underneath he wrote the phrase "We remember too" - implying that war is bad for everyone involved.

Suffice to say, his teacher was not impressed. Though apparently my grandfather didn't really mind.