Wear Your Poppy With Pride.

Discussion in 'All Anniversaries' started by Maywalk, Nov 7, 2006.

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  1. Kitty

    Kitty Very Senior Member

    Here's a liitle known fact about poppys and why they are used to commerate the dead of wars past.

    It is widely assumed that poppys are used because not only does their red colour symbolise bloodshed, but of course they also grow prolifically on the fields of Flanders where so many battles in WW1 took place. However, the symbolism goes deeper, because poppys actually grow best in earth that has been disturbed, and as peace settled once more over Flanders in 1918 the shell churned and devestated earth actually provided the best conditions imaginable for the poppys to grow, and they flourished in numbers undreamt of before the war started. It was this juxtaposition of life and death - this flourishing of life from devestated earth - that so poignantly reflected the new peace and chance of life born from the carnage of war, so the poppy became the symbol of future hope and a sacrament to the fallen.
    Very true. The poppy is a harvest flower which requires the land to be ploughed once a year for it's seeds to go into the earth. ten years ago the numbr of poppies in Flanders was dropping dramatically as the land was no longer disturbed. A programme of reseeding was put into action and now the poppy numbers have increased again.

    Saw in the paper today a plea for more sellers next year as they are several thousand short. So why, when I sent my details TWICE to the legion volunteering two months ago, was i not even contacted? huh?

    A note about the enamel badges. I shall be attending Chatsworth Country Fair again next September. If anyone wants an enamel badge, with money going direct to the RBL, contact me and I'll try and remember to buy enough.
     
  2. BulgarianSoldier

    BulgarianSoldier Senior Member

    Do you carry those poppys everytime or it is special time in the year?
     
  3. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    Do you carry those poppys everytime or it is special time in the year?
    Dani,
    We wear them in the days up to Remembrance Sunday.
    It used to be Armistice Day, 11th November. Day Armistice signed 11/11/18.
    The whole country would stop for two minutes to remember the War Dead.
    After WW2 it was moved to the Sunday nearest 11th Nov.
     
  4. BulgarianSoldier

    BulgarianSoldier Senior Member

    Now i understand clearly.Sorry i didn't know the british tradition reallt good :(
    We have a samiliar thing here too but we stop for 1 minute at 2 June to remamber just one man a hero for Bulgaria a man that done a lot for Bulgarian Liberation.
     
  5. Cpl Rootes

    Cpl Rootes Senior Member

    who Dani? Now we are the one's in the dark :D
     
  6. lancesergeant

    lancesergeant Senior Member

    I don't really agree with the year round Poppy idea.
    I always feel there's something special about the limited remembrance period. A pause to say thank you at a highly appropriate time to those that made the rest of the rat-race year possible.
    Stronger medicine in shorter doses that could be seriously diluted by a year round presence.
    Cheers,
    Adam.
    Inclined to agree with you on that one VP. By having it on an anniversary date, it is remembered and thoughts are channeled into a moment in time. If it was year round it would sink to the level of chucking your loose change into the collection box if and when you felt like it. If every day was a birthday then it wouldn't mean anything.

    I think the two minutes silence when factories, utilities make time to stop from their activities and the pursuit of profit,for two minutes is heartening to a lot of people me included, makes the moment poignant and in a small way shows that people do genuinely care. The two minutes is also a focus - a focal point where I know that other are thinking similar thought and remembering as a nation/ unit instead of disconnected individuals.
     
  7. BulgarianSoldier

    BulgarianSoldier Senior Member

  8. spidge

    spidge RAAF RESEARCHER

  9. BulgarianSoldier

    BulgarianSoldier Senior Member

    I thought it may have been Vasil Levski!!
    Anyday the people put flowors on the Vasil Levski statue.And any holiday the people and the army go to the statue.Without him we would never be called Bulgaria we would be now Turkey.
     
  10. Cpl Rootes

    Cpl Rootes Senior Member

    thanks for the info Dani :D

    Alex
     
  11. jacobtowne

    jacobtowne Senior Member

    Do you carry those poppys everytime or it is special time in the year?

    Here in the U.S., wearing the red poppy is done on Memorial Day, the last Monday in May, and the day on which Americans honor those who fell in the nation's wars. Most towns and cities have parades this day, usually organized by local chapters of the two veterans groups - The American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Memorial Day is a legal holiday.

    In my town, it is traditional for a high school student to recite Lincoln's Gettysburg Address at a ceremony in front of our Civil War monument.

    The parade visits several war memorials in town, where a squad of riflemen fires three times, and Taps is played by a bugler.

    Today, November 11th, is Veterans Day here, a day to remember all American veterans. As in Britain, it was originally Armistice Day. I remember as a schoolboy when it was changed in the 1950s. Unlike Memorial Day, it is not a legal holiday.

    JT
     
  12. Kitty

    Kitty Very Senior Member

    Dani. Remembrance Sunday in this country, as already stated is from Armistice Day, was change to Remembrance after WW2 to include the fallen of this war as well as WW1. Now it is to remember the fallen of all our Services, whether in warzones or in peacezones. The Royal British Legion, who run the poppy appeal, have widened and publicised their work to cover all Forces personnel past and present and their dependents as well. They buy children school shoes and pay rents on houses if a widow is struggling, they help old soldiers, or those recently injured, to get the money they deserve and the higher pensions. The RBL will go in and fight for them that have been left behind. They help to retrain those coming out of the services, they help them to get back on their feet and feel wanted again. They also run several respite/rest homes.
    The RBL are moving in and helping young soldiers who are being injured and maimed in Iraq and Afghanistan and getting them help and retraining as well.
    Now the poppy is for so much more than just the fallen.
     
  13. BulgarianSoldier

    BulgarianSoldier Senior Member

    Here in the U.S., wearing the red poppy is done on Memorial Day, the last Monday in May, and the day on which Americans honor those who fell in the nation's wars. Most towns and cities have parades this day, usually organized by local chapters of the two veterans groups - The American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Memorial Day is a legal holiday.

    In my town, it is traditional for a high school student to recite Lincoln's Gettysburg Address at a ceremony in front of our Civil War monument.

    The parade visits several war memorials in town, where a squad of riflemen fires three times, and Taps is played by a bugler.

    Today, November 11th, is Veterans Day here, a day to remember all American veterans. As in Britain, it was originally Armistice Day. I remember as a schoolboy when it was changed in the 1950s. Unlike Memorial Day, it is not a legal holiday.

    JT
    Interesting.In Bulgaria we dont have a remamber day for ww2 the jews in Bulgaria have a remamber day i dont know when but its because we free them from the trains.Here we have a a national holiday at 3 March for all who fail in the war agaist Ottomans.
    From which city are you jacob?

    PS:Its strange how different are we easteuropans and westeuropans CATHOLICISM and Orthodox
     
  14. jacobtowne

    jacobtowne Senior Member

    From which city are you jacob?

    I live in a small, rural town in Massachusetts.

    JT
     
  15. BulgarianSoldier

    BulgarianSoldier Senior Member

    I live in a small, rural town in Massachusetts.

    JT
    Nice! I like small towns :) I asked because i have a cousin in Chicago but i personaly never been there :)

    PS: However i put a poppy for my avatar because i balive that the people who die in ww2 must be no they has to be remambered and a lot of people start to forget what happan.And they dont value what the veterans who fought and give there lifes for beter world.
     
  16. Peter Clare

    Peter Clare Very Senior Member

    [​IMG]


    Dakota Poppy drop.
     
  17. MaryFM

    MaryFM Junior Member

    My enamel poppy badge is on my jacket 24/7 and when I don't have my jacket it's pinned to my bag.
    Poppy badges can be found on the website www.rblicatalogue.co.uk/catalogueindex2.cfm

    Kind regards
    MaryFM
     
  18. Cpl Rootes

    Cpl Rootes Senior Member

    Does anyone know an actual E-mai lfor the RBL? I sent one from the link on the webbie but i dont think its gone through.
     
  19. Cpl Rootes

    Cpl Rootes Senior Member

    anyone at all?
     
  20. Auditman

    Auditman Senior Member

    Not really a reply guys, more of a reminder.

    Don't forget the 2007 Poppy Appeal is about to hit the streets and thanks to the unending ambition of politicians there is now a new generation of soldiers that really needs our help.

    Thank you RBL, unfortunately you have to keep up the good work.
     

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