Inspired by the poem “In Flanders Fields” by the Canadian John McCrae in the wake of the First World War, the remembrance poppy has been used to commemorate military personnel who died in war. Although it’s most commonly associated with Britain and the Commonwealth, it has deep roots in the United States, having been originated by the American professor and humanitarian Moina Michael. For this, she was honored by being featured on a 1948 three-cent postage stamp.
With Veterans Day coming up soon, I wanted to discuss why the use of the poppy is less common in America today. It exists: both the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars make them and my discussions with a few older relatives leads me to think it used to be more common around Veterans Day and Memorial Day. From time to time, I see the image of the poppy used regarding these holidays. But, I think there’s a lot of people who would not even understand the symbolism.
I’m doing my small part to cause a poppy revival. I ordered some poppy pins off the Internet and plan to wear one for the first 11 days of November and on Memorial Day in May. I’m also sharing them with family and friends. The one thing that gives me pause is in even-numbered years that’s around the time of the election, and I’m hesitant to use a non-political, solemn symbol in such a politically-charged environment, so I’ll probably wait until the second day after the election.
I remember them well from when I was a kid in the 1950s, but I didn’t understand the symbolism then. I haven’t seen one for many years, but then, I’m not normally in the US around those days.
I would guess that the reason they are less popular is simply because they are linked to WWI, and that’s increasingly distant in time. Also, WWI might be less significant in the US than it is in the UK, which suffered much greater losses for more years.
For those not familiar with In Flanders Fields, here it is:
Last yeat at this time our library had an exhibition on poppies, and invited people to make them. A pattern for crocheting a poppy was provided, and all that were made or otherwise contributed were made into a really big collage.
In my area (suburban Chicago), one still sees members of the American Legion or the VFW offering the little poppy boutonnieres outside of stores, and sometimes at stoplights, in exchange for donations, both around Memorial Day and Veterans Day. I usually pick up one or two, as it’s a good cause, and worth commemorating.
They’re common here in SE Michigan outside of the Oakland-Wayne-Macomb tri-county area; I grew up with them, and solicitations on street corners. These days I view them as a Canadian thing, or at least Ontario, where they’re everywhere for Remembrance Day, which coincides with out Armistice/Veterans Day.
The Royal Canadian Mint issues commemorative coins with poppies on them. I have a set that was issued in 2017 celebrating Canada’s 150th anniversary, and two of the coins (both quarters) have the poppy on them. Newfoundland has the forget-me-not as its remembrance flower.
I remember the Veterans of Foreign Wars selling remembrance poppies in front of the grocery store. My dad always bought a couple. Haven’t seen that in many years though.
Some of us preferred to not support the VFW (Or was it the AL?) in the sixties and seventies because by their lights Vietnam, a “police action,” wasn’t a war. They realized their error later, but I can hold a grudge.
There was an item on today’s news about the Canadian Legion just not having enough veterans to man the poppy stations and they were looking for volunteers even non-veterans. The plain fact is that it has been a long time since Canada has fought in a war and the veterans of WWII and Korea are dying off. Those of WWI are long gone.
At the time of its writing, this part of the poem, which unironically urges the living to press the war effort, was seen as a good and noble cause. This was before the continuation of the Great War had wrought the full weight of its civilization-breaking horror on Europe, paving the way for a racist, totalitarian future and an all-but-unimaginable greater war to come.
Now that the “quarrel” is long over and needs no pressing, modern audiences may prefer to interpret keeping faith with the dead in a less martial, more melancholy spirit.
Aside from the troubling questions over the applicability of the poem which inspired the use of the poppy as a symbol for remembrance, there is the added complication that the USA’s observance of 11 November is out of sync with the commonwealth and other poppy-sporting nations of WWI. Whereas the poem, and the poppy, and the observances outside the US are about “remembrance” (and I employ scare quotes to highlight what is, in my view, a very ironic use of the term “remembrance”) in the US the holiday supposedly associated with “remembrance” is Memorial Day.
So should we decide to wear poppies, should we wear them in November when everyone else is doing it, but it doesn’t really match our holiday, or should we wear them out of step with everyone else in May?
I vote for the third option: neither. There’s already enough theater around Veterans Day and Memorial Day. We don’t need to introduce any additional displays of “heartfelt support” and “remembrance.”
My store has them with a little donation can up by the register. I would think the reason you don’t see them as much is because most of the people that were buying them (at least IME) were vets and, well, there’s less vets now.
I just want to point out that we’re out of sync with their Nov 11th observances because we did it first; Memorial Day in the spring predates WWI by a good while.
I’d say that it’s better to wear the poppies on Memorial Day in the spring, rather than on Veteran’s Day in November, but there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with wearing them on Nov 11th either.
In the UK, its importance is heightened by it being a huge charity fund raising effort - poppies are sold by veterans on behalf of the Royal British Legion, a huge national charity engaged in caring for veterans. The poppy is the charity’s logo.
No politician or TV host would dare step out in public without sporting one. As the lead image on today’s BBC news page testifies.
Exactly this in Canada with the Royal Canadian Legion. Definitely no politician or public figure would ever be caught not wearing one from the last Friday in October through November 11. But really, just about every adult in the country wears one.
I find the US versions of poppies quite sad. I keep a supply of Canadian Legion poppies at my desk and offer them to coworkers. It is remarkable how few Americans know what they are. It is sad how many Brits give a ration of stuff for wearing one.
Though there’s always some ambiguity about our approach in Britain, AFAIK it always was towards the solemn/melancholy sort of memorial occasion, ever since the first in 1920. It is not really a celebration or glorification.
Locally, it is very common for the Legion to drop off boxes of poppies in retail businesses. I saw one today, at a local liquor store. You drop your donation through a slot in the box, and take a poppy. Not quite as much fun as getting one from an actual veteran (I had a great conversation with an RCN veteran maybe twenty years ago, about his service in WWII), but at least poppies are still available.
I think that Army, Navy, and Air Force cadets sell them also, outside supermarkets, and at malls, and such, nowadays.
Same in the UK. Volunteers of all kinds on the street and in tube stations (I once saw our borough Mayor in full ceremonial robes on the stand outside my regular supermarket), sales in ordinary retail stores, the works.