# Nov. 11 & poppies **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 10, 2003, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nov-11-poppies/212410 "2003-11-10T15:50:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![robcaro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@robcaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robcaro)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nov-11-poppies/212410/21 "2003-11-10T19:50:03Z")
Xgemina hit the nail on the head. I also grew up in South Dakota and remember the sale of poppies every Nov 11. I think the idea has become unpopular since those days a long long time ago. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nov-11-poppies/212410/22 "2003-11-10T20:22:16Z")
At my university, Guelph, it is almost blasphemous to NOT wear a poppy in Remembrance Day. John McCrae was born there, not 10 minutes walk from the campus and War Memorial Hall, the building dedicated to the students (and all soldiers) who died during the first and second world wars. I can’t remember a time in my life (all 22 years of it) where poppies weren’t worn, and I suppose the strength of that tradition in Canada is obvious when you take a look at our ten-dollar-bill: [http://www.bankofcanada.ca/en/banknotes/general/character/2001\_10b.htm](http://www.bankofcanada.ca/en/banknotes/general/character/2001_10b.htm) The words just left of centre of the back of the bill are the first verse of “In Flander’s Fields”, in both english and french. I have a poppy in my car, year-round, pinned to the ceiling. It’s been there since I got that car, 4 years ago, and its actually one of the poppies with the green centre, rather than the black. ---
**Author:** ![Dogface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@Dogface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogface)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nov-11-poppies/212410/23 "2003-11-10T20:44:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kymodoce \* > \*\*My wife is American, I am British… she knew nothing of the habit of wearing poppies on Remembrance Day until she moved here to the UK. \*\* So how does that prove that it didn’t originate here? ---
**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nov-11-poppies/212410/24 "2003-11-10T21:49:27Z")
Local chapters of the VFW sell popies on 11/11. Regional thing perhaps. WWII veterans may not push it like the WWI Vets. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nov-11-poppies/212410/25 "2003-11-11T00:17:49Z")
May first as Labor Day is another commemorative day which was born in the USA and which today is celebrated pretty much around the world. . . except in the USA where it is celebrated in September. ---
**Author:** ![leechbabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7cd45c/32.png) [@leechbabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leechbabe)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nov-11-poppies/212410/26 "2003-11-11T01:48:09Z")
As someone mentioned we do wear poppies here in Australia. I remember one of my school teachers saying the red colour of the poppy symbolised the blood spilt. ---
**Author:** ![leechbabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7cd45c/32.png) [@leechbabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leechbabe)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nov-11-poppies/212410/27 "2003-11-11T01:53:30Z")
From http://www.anzacday.org.au/education/tff/poppy.html]here: > [@](#): > > November is poppy month, the time of the year when by the wearing of a simple emblem, a red poppy, we salute the memory of those who sacrificed their health, their strength, even their lives, that we might live in a free country. > > Long known as the corn poppy (Papaver rhoeas) because it flourishes as a weed in grain fields, the Flanders poppy as it is now usually called, grew profusely in the trenches and craters of the war zone. Artillery shells and shrapnel stirred up the earth and exposed the seeds to the light they needed to germinate. > > This same poppy also flowers in Turkey in early spring - as it did in April 1915 when the ANZACs landed at Gallipoli. According to Australia’s official war historian C.E.W.Bean, a valley south of ANZAC beach got its name Poppy Valley “from the field of brilliant red poppies near its mouth”. > > Whilst the red poppy is a symbol of modern times, legend has it that the poppy goes back to the time of the Mogul leader, Genghis Khan, as the flower associated with human sacrifice. ---
**Author:** ![Flymaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c4cdca/32.png) [@Flymaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flymaster)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nov-11-poppies/212410/28 "2003-11-11T02:09:12Z")
They definetly have poppies as general veteran’s organization fundraisers more or less year round in Massachusetts, and I certainly know the connection between 11/11 and poppies, but I don’t associate Veteran’s/Rememberance Day and poppies THAT tightly in my head. ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nov-11-poppies/212410/29 "2003-11-11T02:09:37Z")
In the U.S., poppies are worn on Memorial Day, not Veterans Day. Check out [Frequently Asked Veterans Day Questions](http://www.appc1.va.gov/vetsday/page.cfm?pg=11). Peace. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nov-11-poppies/212410/30 "2003-11-11T05:09:02Z")
Hmmm… Either I’m far less observant than I imagined I was, or my home state of Maryland is far less observant of this poppy tradition than other places in the States. I’m 48 years old and until a few minutes ago I had never even \*heard \* of this tradition. And to my recollection have never seen anyone wearing a poppy on Memorial Day or Veteran’s Day. Weird. ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nov-11-poppies/212410/31 "2003-11-11T09:01:30Z")
In the U.S., this is mostly a VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) thing. They’ll sometimes sell (take a donation for) a poppy outside public places such as churches and supermarkets. And, it is a dying practice since its mostly the WWII vets that have been keeping the VFWs going, and, they’re going. Peace. ---
**Author:** ![Kymodoce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8797f3/32.png) [@Kymodoce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kymodoce)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nov-11-poppies/212410/32 "2003-11-11T09:20:29Z")
Dogface, in reply to my post you said: “So how does that prove that it didn’t originate here?” It doesn’t… if you read the OP it asked: “My question is: is the wearing of poppies a tradition anywhere else in the world, or is it strictly a Canadian thing? I’ve never seen it done since I moved down to the States, and I was wondering if this practice was observed anywhere else.” I was giving a bit of information on observance (ie that, in our experience, it was observed in the UK and not in the US), which I thought might be useful, sorry if it wasn’t. Thanks for your welcome to the board though 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nov-11-poppies/212410.md?page=1)