i’ve seen TV-hosts on both BBC and Sky news wear this for weeks now
what is it for?
Just guessing here, but is it a poppy?
They’re popular this time of year…
It’s a poppy, the symbol of Remembrance Day.
thanks for the answer
I keep forgetting that this isn’t a world-wide habit! I’ve worn a poppy as long as I can remember (in elementary school, they warned us not to bend it in half to make lips), so it’s a permanent part of my cultural landscape.
Is there something similar for Veterans’ Day in the U.S.?
In Israel, we wear thisflower - helichrysum sanguineum, A.K.A red everlasting, A.K.A blood of the maccabees - on Memorial Day.
Nah, there’s no kind of floral symbol. Veteran’s Day is a minor holiday in America–most people still go to work, and all the schools around here are open.
The article that Quartz links to mentions that America’s Memorial Day holiday takes the cultural role that Nov 11 takes in the Commonwealth countries.
*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
Note: this poem is in the public domain
Flanders Fields is written on one of our bills. I think it’s the twenty.
Back of the $10, actually.
The poppy is supposed to be a symbol of the US Memorial Day as well. It just never really caught on. I remember the VFW distributing them in exchange for contributions - something I haven’t seen for a while.
some additional reading
And as I have said in just about every other thread about this that pops up, the poppy is around in the states, its just not universal. I have bought a poppy from the VFW every year that I can remember. Maybe you don’t have a VFW near you. The Brits around me now seem to have been wearing it for weeks. Back home I have only ever seen it on Memorial Day or Veterans Day.
Hmm, the Canadian poppies seem a bit nicer than ours. Ours are just cheap stamped-out paper, but judging from the pictures theirs are actually sculpted to resemble real poppies.
Anyway, to reiterate Speaker for the Dead’s point, there is no “these days” about it. TV presenters, politicians and other public figures in many Commonwealth countries have sported symbolic poppies at this time of year for as long as I can remember. They’re sold outside supermarkets, in shopping malls etc., in the weeks leading up to November 11th.
Our poppies in Canada used to feel like felt, but now they are made of cheap plastic.
Veterans Day, formerly Armistice Day, is a holiday in some but not all U.S. states, and we had a thread recently about where V.F.W. poppies were and were not (and were formerly) common sights.
I’ve seen them often over the past 20 years, but not consistently, and they do seem to pop up around Memorial Day, which I find weird–I only expect to see them at Veterans’ Day. The ones I’ve gotten have always been woven silk flowers, albeit very cheap ones. I kind of expected to see someone selling them when I was out and about today, but no dice.
I saw several people in Times Square tonight wearing one of those.
poppys used to be somewhat popular on veterans day in the US. Haven’t seen many in the 20 or so years.
Huh? Mine is still felt. the same poppy that’s been around forever. Yep, the one we folded and made lips out of as kids.