Pop on your poppy for Remembrance Day

DON your poppy flower in support of Poppy Day and Remembrance Day on 9 and 10 November.

Saturday 9 November is Poppy Day and legionnaires and volunteers will be at shopping centres and malls with collection cans.

A serious appeal is made to the public to make donations. This annual collection (and the occasional bequest) is the sole source of funding for the SA Legion who do much to support serving and former service members of the armed forces of all races.

Remembrance Day (also known as Poppy Day or Armistice Day) is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth countries since the end of World War I to remember the members of armed forces who have died in the line of duty.

Remembrance Day is observed to recall the end of hostilities of World War I on 11 November1918. Hostilities formally

ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.

The red remembrance poppy has become a familiar emblem of Remembrance Day due to the poem In Flanders Fields. These poppies bloomed across some of the worst battlefields of Flanders in World War I, their brilliant red colour an appropriate symbol for the blood spilled in the war.

On Sunday 10 November homage will be paid to all those who paid the supreme sacrifice in all past conflicts – that we may live in peace. On this day, branches of the SA Legion hold remembrance services throughout the country.

The Remembrance Service is at 10.30am on Sunday 10 November at the Cenotaph, Farewell Square in Dorothy Nyembe (previously Gardiner) Street and is arranged by the SA Legion on behalf of the eThekwini Municipality.

It concludes with the laying of wreaths by the mayor, foreign consulates, military units and military veterans’ organisations. It lasts about an hour and is both a colourful and spiritually emotional event that the public are encouraged to experience. Everyone is welcome.