# Do Americans wear poppies for Rememberance Day? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 1, 2006, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-wear-poppies-for-rememberance-day/378763 "2006-11-01T18:58:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-wear-poppies-for-rememberance-day/378763/1 "2006-11-01T18:58:33Z")
I’m pretty sure Canadians do, but I wondered if this was a custom for Americans, too. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-wear-poppies-for-rememberance-day/378763/2 "2006-11-01T19:02:11Z")
I don’t think we even _have_ a holiday we call Remembrance Day. ---
**Author:** ![MrFloppy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@MrFloppy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrFloppy)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-wear-poppies-for-rememberance-day/378763/3 "2006-11-01T19:02:19Z")
It is not a custom here in the US - everyone wore one when I lived in England and they were handed out door-to-door style during the weeks before Armistice Day. Having said that, I do know that some members of the American Legion and VFW that I know personally wear them around this time of the year. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-wear-poppies-for-rememberance-day/378763/4 "2006-11-01T19:03:20Z")
I’ve never heard of or seen anyone here do that. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-wear-poppies-for-rememberance-day/378763/5 "2006-11-01T19:08:01Z")
Keep in mind that Nov 11, Armistice Day/Remembrance Day in much of Europe, is Veteran’s Day here. Our “Remembrance Day” (Memorial Day) is on the last Monday in May, although historically it was on May 30th. There are some poppies worn then, but since our Memorial Day predates the post-WWI Remembrance Day, and the poem “In Flanders Fields”, poppies aren’t really traditional. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-wear-poppies-for-rememberance-day/378763/6 "2006-11-01T19:24:09Z")
Veterans have handed out poppies to passers-by on downtown streets here my whole life, as long as I worked in downtown. I haven’t worked in downtown in a decade, though,and the custom was aging as fast as the veterans so it may have ceased in the past few years. Or Iraq might have reawakened it. Either way, the answer to the OP is yes, poppies on Veterans Day was and I believe is a long-standing custom at least in some parts of the U.S. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-wear-poppies-for-rememberance-day/378763/7 "2006-11-01T19:26:31Z")
[QUOTE=AHunter3] I don’t think we even _have_ a holiday we call Remembrance Day. [/QUOTE] It’s not a holiday in the U.K. There’s a two minute silence on 11th Nov, and services and parades on the [Sunday](http://www.britishlegion.org.uk/content/Remembrance-Sunday-508933.shtml) - usually the second Sunday in November. I’m somewhat premature, but: _They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them._ (Laurence Binyon, 21st Sept 1914) Do Americans have similar poems, or are you rather more upbeat? ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-wear-poppies-for-rememberance-day/378763/8 "2006-11-01T20:11:51Z")
I remember being able to buy little silk poppies on Veterans’ Day, to wear in a buttonhole. You could get them from members of the VFW and such. Haven’t seen them in a long time, though. I don’t think poppies were ever as much of a habit here as in British-empire-type places–I suppose because “In Flanders Fields” was before 1917. ---
**Author:** ![cckerberos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@cckerberos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cckerberos)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-wear-poppies-for-rememberance-day/378763/9 "2006-11-01T20:52:09Z")
I remember them being handed out at Boy Scouts and in elementary school. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-wear-poppies-for-rememberance-day/378763/10 "2006-11-01T21:33:46Z")
[QUOTE=dangermom] I remember being able to buy little silk poppies on Veterans’ Day, to wear in a buttonhole. You could get them from members of the VFW and such. Haven’t seen them in a long time, though. I don’t think poppies were ever as much of a habit here as in British-empire-type places–I suppose because “In Flanders Fields” was before 1917. [/QUOTE] Definately around here. Usually for a dollar donation to the VFW. I’m not sure if the American Legion does it. I usually put it on my rear view mirror. I tried to see if there was any mention of poppies on the VFW website but I don’t see any. I am surprised to see that I am eligible to join, since I have never heard a shot fired in anger. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-wear-poppies-for-rememberance-day/378763/11 "2006-11-01T21:43:35Z")
And just a note for non-Americans, “VFW” is Veterans of Foreign Wars, an organization of American veterans. Local chapters generally have halls where they can go to hang out together, or rent out the halls for things like wedding receptions. They also often do symbolic things like marching in parades, or (apparently, though I’ve never seen it done myself) distributing poppies. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2006, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-wear-poppies-for-rememberance-day/378763/12 "2006-11-02T02:57:08Z")
[QUOTE=dangermom] I don’t think poppies were ever as much of a habit here as in British-empire-type places–I suppose because “In Flanders Fields” was before 1917. [/QUOTE] It may not have caught on as much in the U.S., but it was an American who came up with the idea in the first place, right at the end of WWI, as explained [here](http://www.nationalwarmemorial.govt.nz/unknown/poppy.html): > [@](#): > > Among the many people moved by McCrae’s poem a YMCA canteen worker in New York, Miss Moina Michael (1869-1944), who, two days before the Armistice was signed on 11 November 1918, wrote a reply entitled “We Shall Keep the Faith”. Moina Michael hereafter tirelessly campaigned to get the poppy adopted as a national symbol of remembrance in the United States. In September 1920 the American Legion adopted the Poppy at its annual Convention. Attending that Convention was a French woman who was about to promote the poppy — as a symbol of remembrance — throughout the world. > > Madame E. Guérin, conceived the idea of widows manufacturing artificial poppies in the devastated areas of Northern France which then could be sold by veterans’ organisations worldwide for their own veterans and dependants as well as the benefit of destitute French children. Throughout 1920-21, Guérin and her representatives approached veteran organisations’ in the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and urged them to adopt the poppy as a symbol of remembrance. It was as a result of the efforts of Michael and Guérin — both of whom became known endearingly as the “Poppy Lady” — that the poppy became an international symbol of remembrance. ---
**Author:** ![Seven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Seven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seven)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2006, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-wear-poppies-for-rememberance-day/378763/13 "2006-11-02T11:04:50Z")
I don’t recall ever seeing them in Washington or Oregon in the US. Up here in Vancouver BC they are everywhere. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2006, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-wear-poppies-for-rememberance-day/378763/14 "2006-11-02T13:11:27Z")
In (my part of) Michigan we had poppies for Veterans’ Day whilst growing up. It certainly wasn’t the phenomenon that it is here in Ontario for Rememberance Day. I guess the Ontarioians (or Canadians in general?) have more rememberance than we do. When you change the name of a holiday to “Veterans’ Day” and there’s a whole generation of people that don’t give a whit about veterans, then the holiday loses its importance. I’m just speculating, however, and maybe inappropriately so for GQ. As a further WAG, the poppy thing could have just been a spillover from the Canucks where I grew up on the border. Everyone says it’s a Canadianism, but I grew up with no confusion over “homo milk” and the Ontario accent doesn’t sound funny to me. ---
**Author:** ![SkeptiJess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@SkeptiJess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkeptiJess)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2006, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-wear-poppies-for-rememberance-day/378763/15 "2006-11-02T13:25:04Z")
Gosh, they’ve handed out poppies for Veteran’s Day every place I’ve ever lived. Of course, I’ve generally lived in areas with a military presence. I’ve mostly lived in San Diego, or Hampton Roads, VA. However, I spent my teens and early 20s in Northern California (Ukiah) and they certainly gave out poppies around there. I have a poppy hanging from my rear view mirror right now, and it’ll stay there 'til I get another this Veteran’s Day. Maybe you have to watch for them – they’re usually handed out at shopping centers and stores, in my experience. My mom was born in 1940 and her dad was a disabled WWI vet. Mom remembers going with him every Veteran’s Day to hand out poppies in downtown San Diego. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2006, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-wear-poppies-for-rememberance-day/378763/16 "2006-11-02T13:29:46Z")
We’ve worn the poppy (on our rear view mirror) for evah. My parents did it and my husband and I do it. It’s tradition in the Chicago area. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2006, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-wear-poppies-for-rememberance-day/378763/17 "2006-11-02T13:32:45Z")
I do, but I am the only one. I always remember 11/11. Bitch of a war. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2006, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-wear-poppies-for-rememberance-day/378763/18 "2006-11-02T13:38:47Z")
[QUOTE=Loach] Definately around here. Usually for a dollar donation to the VFW. I’m not sure if the American Legion does it. I usually put it on my rear view mirror. I tried to see if there was any mention of poppies on the VFW website but I don’t see any. I am surprised to see that I am eligible to join, since I have never heard a shot fired in anger. [/QUOTE] The VFW [Buddy Poppy](http://www.vfw.org/index.cfm?fa=cmty.levelc&cid=127) program has been in existence since 1922. In my home town they sold them for a dime and I always bought one. The program seems to have waned, but I still see them distributed on occasion. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2006, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-wear-poppies-for-rememberance-day/378763/19 "2006-11-02T14:52:42Z")
[QUOTE=David Simmons] The VFW [Buddy Poppy](http://www.vfw.org/index.cfm?fa=cmty.levelc&cid=127) program has been in existence since 1922. In my home town they sold them for a dime and I always bought one. The program seems to have waned, but I still see them distributed on occasion. [/QUOTE] Thanks David, good link. I don’t know how I missed it. I remember your background, are you a member? ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2006, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-wear-poppies-for-rememberance-day/378763/20 "2006-11-02T15:51:12Z")
[QUOTE=Loach] Thanks David, good link. I don’t know how I missed it. I remember your background, are you a member? [/QUOTE] No. I’m not much of a joiner of organizations. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-wear-poppies-for-rememberance-day/378763.md?page=2)