Every year on November 11, communities over the world pause to remember the soldiers who have fallen in the line of duty in several wars.
Remembrance Day was first observed in 1919 throughout the British Commonwealth.
It was originally called “Armistice Day” to commemorate the armistice agreement that ended the First World War at 11am on Monday, November 11, 1918.
In South Africa it is called Poppy Day, named after the red poppies that had sprung up after the skirmishes in the war-fields and was always celebrated on the Sunday that falls closest to November 11.
Springs has its own tradition around this day by commemorating Remembrance Day each year at Springs Old Boys’ High School on November 11.
This year’s event will start at 10.45am at the school.
One of the best ways explaining this day and the war that initiated it, is in the poem “In Flanders Fields” by Major John McCrae.
He wrote the poem during the early days of the Second Battle of Ypres when a young Canadian artillery officer, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, of the First Brigade Canadian Field Artillery, was killed on May 2, 1915 in the gun positions near Ypres.
At Helmer’s burial service, McCrae, the Canadian military doctor and artillery commander, read the draft for his now famous poem, “In Flanders Fields”, that reads:
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.
