As November 11 rolls around once again, Remembrance Day Poppies are appearing on people’s lapels - this is a UK (and its colonies) based tradition to remember the dead of the first World War - see a UK Government Fact sheet (Warning - PDF File!!) if you want more info about the tradition.
This practice is often followed by controversy - there has been the wearing of white poppies instead of the traditional red ones to symbolise opposition to war; and now the BBC has been criticised for its decision to stop people on its international broadcasts wearing poppies.
All that is as introduction to the question: A female BBC Breakfast presenter was yesterday criticised for wearing her poppy in her left lapel and was told that ladies should wear the poppy on the right lapel. Is this common practice for ladies wearing any kind of lapel flower, or is it unique to the Remembrance Day poppy? Today she was still wearing it in her left lapel, so perhaps this is an antiquated tradition that she is choosing to ignore?
There has also been controversy over a BBC policy which required its presenters in Northern Ireland to wear a poppy on Rememberance Day. As a symbol of honour for British soldiers, it is unsurprisingly not popular (to say the least) among a substantial portion of the NI population. At one time presenters who refused to wear it would not be allowed on-air; I’m not sure what the current status of the policy is, though all the BBC/NI presenters I’ve noticed today seem to be wearing one.
I’ve wondered about this - in Australia, I’ve only noticed poppies over the past few years - maybe ten, at the outside, but I think that’s a bit generous.
I’d always known the tradition to be wearing rosemary - for rememberence, whereas poppies, for forgetfulness, seemed kinda disrespectful. The first time I remember seeing poppies was when the Red Cross was selling them, and they seem to have registered them as some sort of proprietary trademark for fundraising, because they kicked up a stink a couple of years ago when someone else (Legacy?) tried to sell them.
Can anyone else in Oz back me up on the rosemary thing, or am I just trying to talk myself into making a lamb roast this weekend?
Can’t say anything about the use of rosemary down under, but the use of poppies up here is supposed to be reminiscent of the flowers that sprang up from the heavily shelled fields of Flanders and Northern France during WWI, so we don’t normally associate them with forgetfulness. The symbolism dates from Napoleonic times at least, maybe before. They’re also blood-coloured.
This site lists the meanings of various flowers and several plants, including rosemary, are apparently associated with remembrance.
everton, I would add only that I believe that poppies grew on these sites so much because the bodies enriched the soil. I’m from the U.S. and I know that their use here dates back at least to the 1940’s.
When I was growing up, women that I knew ALWAYS wore flowers and pins on the left lapel. In more recent years, I see either side used. In retrospect, designating a side seems silly.
Zoe, I dont think that ‘enriched’ soil has anything to do with the growing of poppys.
Poppys grow readily in any disturbed soil and here in England one will commonly see poppies by the road side where the soil has recently been disturbed by construction work. A year or two later, there will be none.
In the past, any field that had been plowed would, the following spring, show a crop intermixed with red poppies. Now that farmers use substantial quatities of hebicides, this is a rare sight.
In world war I there would have been plenty of poppy seeds available from nearby farms, and the poppies would have had ideal conditions and no competion on the constantly disturbed battlefields.
BigNik I always remember it being poppies, going back about 25 years or so. I’ve heard the saying “rosemary for rememberance” but I’ve never actually seen anyone wearing it.
In Canada the tradition is - and I don’t use this word lightly - sacred. Anyone criticizing the wearing of poppies would be subjected to a public shitstorm of such wrath that you wouldn’t be able to get a job scooping poop. The tradition is taught to schoolchildren as being nothing short of a civic duty; there is no kid in Canada who isn’t taught “In Flanders Fields” around this time of year and doesn’t make poppies and poppy art and stuff. All newscasters on Canadian TV wear them; all politicians wear them; most major public figures will wear them. Most people wear them, although they tend to fall out of your coat at the slightest provocation so at least or four times a year you’ll realize you’ve lost yours and have to buy another - which is probably part of the Legion’s plan.
On the other hand, I’ve never heard any serious criticism of which lapel it should be worn in. As a matter of habit most people wear it on the left.
The tradition does stem from John McRae’s poem - McRae was a Canadian, so maybe this is why it’s held in such high regard in Canada. He wrote the poem about poppies because they grew so easily and prevalently in the Western Front battlefields, so G. Cornelius is right; it’s because they seemed to appear everywhere around the churned-up earth in a place otherwise devoid of most vegetation.
The aforementioned poem is one that I will always remember…
In Flander’s Fields
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.
John McCrae was a Canadian physician who fought along the western front in 1914.
I’m quite prepared to wear Faulty Memory Syndrome on this one (and remember, if it’s a syndrome it’s not your fault), but geez, I’m sure I remember otherwise. Ah, well.
I do not think a white anti-war poppy is needed, at least not in Canada. Many of the veterans who sell the red ones (back with the old black centre) are War Amps, whose slogan is quite simply “Never again.”
God. I had to learn that poem so many times, and I can’t say the experience was, at the time, very enriching. So why am I getting choked up now?
There’s a reason the poem is on our 10 dollar bill…it touches a lot of people…
I go to school in Guelph, and although I know John McCrae’s house is open to the public, and I’ve driven past it, I haven’t visted it yet. It’s now on my TO-DO list.
I was surprised to see the black centre in the poppy. In my memory (I’m 21), they’ve always been green, and it was really weird to see black. It messes with my memories! But on the other hand, there’s something so much more…sombre…about it that makes it mean more for some reason.
I remember when the poppies used to have black and green centres. They were in three parts; the red petal part, a black circle in the centre, and a smaller green circle inside that. They were made out of paper back then, not plastic like now.
Thank you, Manduck, for confirming my memory of the tri-colour poppy. I mentioned it the other day to a group of youngsters in their 30s and got looked at like I was crazy.
'Course, back then we also wore onions on our belts, but that’s another story…