by waaytoomuchintothis » Fri Nov 11, 2016 1:00 pm
The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month- the Armistice ending WWI was signed and the world agreed to honor all the dead from the "war to end all wars, the last Great War". The wearing of a red poppy in remembrance signifies honoring the memory of "Flanders Fields", a poem written by a WWI Canadian Army doctor, Brigade Physician, Major John McCrea in 1915.
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.
The US went even further in 1921, by bringing one of three exhumed unknown bodies of fallen US soldiers back home from France to become the symbol of all the unknown American dead... The Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington Cemetery. He rests on 2 inches of French soil inside the tomb. He was chosen from the three by a highly decorated WWI Sergeant from the US Army, by laying white roses on the casket he chose. For over a century, November 11th was Armistice Day around the world, eventually the US started calling it Veteran's Day, although for the rest of the world, the name remains as created.
Both sides of my family have members in Arlington. All of them died in combat in several wars, the other veterans in my family chose private cemeteries to be with their families. Whether an American served or not, whether those in our families were killed or not, our lives are all touched by war and by sacrifice. This is the day we set aside for remembering that fact, in as many different ways as there people to remember. Its a very serious day.