Why we wear a poppy on Remembrance Day
Wear a poppy with pride this weekend in support of the South African Legion, veterans and their families.
SPARE some change and wear a poppy this weekend in support of the South African Legion, veterans and their families. The red poppy (Papaver rhoeas) is mentioned in history from the earliest of times.
The flower was found on Egyptian pyramids dating back 3000 years. It features in Homer’s Iliad and plays a central role in Greek mythology. It has become the symbol of remembrance for fallen comrades. This is explained by the simple phenomenon that the poppy’s seed can lie dormant for extremely long periods and once exposed to sunlight, the seeds sprout and grow in abundance.
Vast carpets of poppies have formed on the scenes of violent battles throughout the ages. Genghis Khan’s battlefields were covered with the white Asian poppy and battlefields during the Napoleonic War were covered in red poppies. Fields of poppies appeared in Flanders and elsewhere during World War 1. The poppy has inspired many anthems, songs and poems, including Lt Col John McCrae’s now famous poem called In Flanders Fields.
After the Great War, hundreds of thousands of people worldwide were unemployed, incapacitated and bereft as a result of war. In the UK, Field Marshall Sir Douglas Haig, Commander of the British Expeditionary Force in Belgium and France, formed the (Royal) British Legion, in 1921, to assist the men who had served with him in battle. In that year, a group of French veteran’s widows proposed to him that the Legion sold French-made silk poppies to raise funds to support British veterans. He ordered 9 million of these poppies and sold them on 11 November that year.
And so the tradition of wearing a red poppy in remembrance gained momentum. It is now common practise in many countries, including South Africa. The South African Legion distributes poppies in aid of South African Military Veterans and their families every year in November.
