On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918, the First World War ended. Since then, 11th November or Armistice Day, has been a day to pause and remember those who have given their lives for the peace and freedom.
The tradition of wearing a poppy in Remembrance stems from a poem written by Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae of the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps. He was working in a dressing station on the front line to the north of Leper, Belgium, when he wrote In Flanders 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 growIn Flanders fields.
In 1918 Moira Michael, an American, wrote a poem in reply, We shall keep the faith, in which she promised to wear a poppy 'in honour of our dead' and so began the tradition of wearing a poppy in remembrance. Poppies were first sold in England on Armistice Day in 1921 by members of the British Legion to raise money for those who had been incapacitated by the war, and this tradition continues today.
Links:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/remembrance/history/
http://www.britishlegion.org.uk/