Every November 11th, Canadians & many Europeans pause in a silent moment (on the 11th hour, 11th day, 11th month) of remembrance for the men and women who served our country during wartime. We honour those who fought for Canada - in the First World War (1914-1918), the Second World War (1939-1945) and the Korean War (1950-1953).
On November 11th, we wear poppies. We pause for two minutes of silent tribute, and we attend commemorative ceremonies in memory of our war-time dead.
Poppies are worn as the flower of remembrance, a reminder of the blood-red flower which still grows on the site of battles fought in France and Belgium. Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, during the terrible bloodshed of the second battle of Ypres, in the spring of 1915, wrote of these flowers which lived on among the graves of dead soldiers.
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. (John McCrae, In Flanders Fields and Other Poems. Edited by Sir Andrew Macphail, Toronto, Briggs, 1919.)
Every November 11th, Canadians & many Europeans pause in a silent moment (on the 11th hour, 11th day, 11th month) of remembrance for the men and women who served our country during wartime. We honour those who fought for Canada - in the First World War (1914-1918), the Second World War (1939-1945) and the Korean War (1950-1953).
On November 11th, we wear poppies. We pause for two minutes of silent tribute, and we attend commemorative ceremonies in memory of our war-time dead.
