We wore them in Canada.

I've seen the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) sell paper or plastic poppies around Memorial Day. When I went to the UK last month they had a bunch of poppy-related memorabilia at a War Musuem I went to. It seems much more culturally prevalent in the UK than in the States.

It's probably already been discussed:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papaver_rhoeas#Cultural_usage
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Flanders_Fields

I'll be getting my poppy, tomorrow.

Our office normally shuts at 10.30am on 11/11, all staff will gather in the local Market Square for the 11am ceremony of Remembrance.

I usually take the office camera and video the event, placing it on our Youtube Channel.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/09/2011 08:00PM by matt.

In my personal experience, in Canada, the UK and Australia.

Colonel John MacRae was the author of In Flanders Fields. The poppy was worn as a result of his poem.

In my Australian city (Adelaide) tomorrow at 1100 an RAF plane will drop 100,000 poppies over the city to commemorate the Servicemen of the 2 World Wars.

Our National War Memorial in Canberra has large bronze plaques with the names of all Australians who fell. The custom is to place a small paper poppy next to a relative's name. On one visit with my teenaged daughter I was attempting to do this, but the name was at the top of the plaque & beyond our combined reach. A visiting Japanese gentleman bowed & respectfully asked if he could do it for us.I was incredibly touched by this.