The Poppy Story

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.

— Lt.-Col. John McCrae (1872 - 1918)

 
Seeing a post honoring veterans day brought to mind a time when I was a little girl...On this day every year we would be dismissed early to cavort around the town square giving away (for donations)  red, paper poppies just like the one pictured above...wonder if that's still practiced.

That motivated me to research this custom.

"In 1918, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day in the eleventh month, the world rejoiced and celebrated. After four years of bitter war, an armistice was signed. The "war to end all wars" was over. November 11th was set aside as Armistice Day in the United States, to remember the sacrifices that men and women made during World War I in order to ensure a lasting peace".

Congress voted Armistice Day a federal holiday in 1938, 20 years after the war had ended. In 1953 townspeople in Kansas called the holiday Veterans' Day in gratitude to the veterans of their hometown. Soon after President Nixon declared it a federal holiday.

For The Poppy Story go here http://www.cal-mum.com/poppy.htm