Poppy Day.

The First World War finally ended after four long and bloody years of fighting, on November 11 1918. The guns stopped on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.
Millions of people were killed in the war and millions more were injured. In the years since 1918, even more people have died in wars around the world including, of course, World War Two.

November 11 was chosen back in 1919 as the special day each year when we would all think about and remember those who had died. To this day, almost 100 years later, at 11am on November 11 many people across Britain stay silent for two minutes to think about those who died.
Poppies are also used to raise money for servicemen and women who are still alive but whose lives have been changed by war.

Why November 11 is special, but why poppies?
The story begins back in 1915, during World War One…

The poppies were are wild at Gallipoli, at the scene of an awful battle in 1915, a Doctor called John McCrea, was working to help soldiers in France, wrote a poem in 1915 about the poppies growing on the graves of dead soldiers. The poem goes –
.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, 1915.
Courtesy of The Royal British Legion.

I will wear my poppy with pride and show my gratitude and remember all the people who’ve died in wars with thousands of innocent people who have lost their lives so we can live today.

May God Bless their Families.
x