This November 11, Armistice Day is celebrated again, which commemorates the cessation of hostilities of the , at 11 in the morning of November 11, 1918. This day has become a commemoration of peace and to honor veterans of the two World Wars in several countries, although it is celebrated under different names, such as Remembrance Day (in the Commonwealth States) or “Veterans Day” (in the United States).
The origin of this day is in the peace signed between the Allies and the German Empire that put an end to the fighting on the Western Front of the First World War (1914-1918). Its commemoration is especially sensitive in France, where it is the National Day of Victory and Peace, which is celebrated with ceremonies throughout the country, including that of the tomb of the unknown soldier under the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, and also in the United States, where cemeteries are filled to honor fallen soldiers. Also in the United Kingdom, with its Remembrance Day, which fills the streets and churches, or in Belgium, where it is a holiday and offerings of flowers are made in every small corner where there are plaques or statues in memory of those who fought, right in a country that is rightly called “the battlefield” of Europe.
From end to end, in all these nations the same symbol is used for remembrance: a red poppy, which is placed on their lapels or on their chest, which they wear with pride and memory. But why this flower and not another?
The reason has to do with war, yes, but also with a poem. In the spring of 1915 the second battle of Ypres (in Belgium) took place. It started on April 2 and concluded on May 25. For more than a month, British (whose ranks included Canadians and Australians), French and Belgian forces confronted the troops of the German Empire. The battle was more than cruel: 100,000 people died, 70,000 of them on the Allied side. Many of these deaths were due to asphyxiation and injuries caused by chlorine gas: it was the first chemical battle of the war.
Lieutenant Colonel Joe McRae fought with the Allies in that battle. He survived, but the Canadian, who was a doctor by profession, was also a poet in his free time, so he tried to capture what happened in that battle in verse. In the fields of Flanderspublished that same year, reads like this: “In Flanders’ fields the poppies blow / Between the crosses, row on row.” A phrase that can be seen on memorials.
This is the full text:
In the fields of Flanders
poppies grow.
row after row
between the crosses that mark our graves.
And in the sky the brave lark still flies and sings,
his voice muffled by the roar of the cannons.
We are the dead.
A few days ago we lived,
we sang auroras, we saw the red of the twilight,
we loved, we were loved.
Now we lie, in the fields of Flanders.
Against the enemy continue our fight.
Take the torch that our bloodless hands throw to you.
Keep it high.
If you lack the faith of us dead,
we will never rest,
although they bloom
in the fields of Flanders,
the poppies
The poem was published in an English magazine, Punchanonymously. The piece broke the humorous tone of the publication, giving way to emotion, without jingoism.
The poppies that bloomed were not just poppies. They represented the wounds of the soldiers, the shots that broke bodies and released a flower of blood, a bright red, which McRae identified as poppies.
The Canadian doctor died of pneumonia before the end of the war. He didn’t see peace. Nor how a woman, the North American Moina Michael, proposed, using her poem as a basis, to use poppies as a symbol of memory and hope for a better future. This is how in 1921, American and British veterans adopted the poppy – made of red fabric and with a black heart – as a symbol to wear every year, every year on a day dedicated to remembering the fallen: the Rememberance Dayas they call it.
There are still many reasons today to remember those wars and the need to prevent new hatred and totalitarianism. There are still at least 59 wars to close. .
