![]() ![]() Since moving to Britain, I’ve become aware of the ubiquity of poppies on lapels in the weeks leading up to November 11. I can, however, wear my poppy, recite a poem, and take two minutes on the 11 th hour of the 11 th day of the 11 th month to reflect, appreciate, and remember. From my perspective, I can’t fully appreciate what anyone has been through a war has experienced, and hopefully I never will. I would never fault someone for wearing a white poppy, I don’t think there should be a witch-hunt for the staff member who photoshopped a poppy onto David Cameron’s lapel last week (and really, can you blame them?), and I think all this fuss about which type of poppy a person wears is ridiculous. Ultimately, as with all commemoration, you need to do what makes sense for you. Perhaps we should be fighting the disease, rather than the symptom. While the wearing of poppies is a symptom of glorification, I think it is a lot more far reaching than a plastic flower. Think of the films, monuments, books, and scholarship on war-related activities that we encounter all the time. In that case, we are constantly engaging in the glorification of war. I see glorification as the on-going veneration and idolising of events of various wars. As is always the case in history, I think this statement really depends on your definition of glorification. I think the biggest criticism of poppy-wearing, and in my opinion the most convincing one, is the notion that poppies contribute to glorification of war. Until these programs are funded in another way, poppies are the best option available. Ideally, people would not need an excuse to give money in the aid of veterans, but clearly we do. Around £40 million is raised each year in the UK alone, often for programs and supports that governments don’t fund (which is a whole seperate issue). If it takes wearing a poppy for people to remember, than I am all for it. As a former-medievalist, I see how easily events of the past can be ‘forgotten’ by the public. Whether I agree with how commemorations of Wallace, Bruce, and Bannockburn are carried out or not, without the public recognizing these people and events as something worthy of commemoration, my citing them in an offhand manner just then would mean nothing to any of you readers. Therefore, I see every single day the affect that remembrance and memory have on public knowledge. Since moving to multicultural Edinburgh I’ve begun to think critically about why I, as a human and as an historian, continue to wear a poppy.Ĭrucially, my entire PhD thesis is focused on the commemoration of war, though my war (the Scottish Wars of Independence) happened 700 years ago. It is only recently that I learned I have lived in two of the few countries that have a poppy tradition besides Canada and the UK, the others are South Africa and New Zealand (though Kiwis do for Anzac day). I’m an historian, it’s probably not shocking that I have a love of tradition. For a long time I think it was merely habit. To this day I can still recite the poem by memory- well done Canadian public school system.įor a few years I have been reflecting on why I choose to wear a poppy in the first few weeks of November. Fast forward to the late-1990s when, in my primary school, we were taught about the poppy and learned the words to ‘In Flanders Fields’. Depending on whom you ask, wearing poppies began as an American or French tradition towards the end of the First World War, and became a source of revenue for veterans’ services in the 1920s. In May 1915, Canadian solider John McCrae wrote the poem ‘In Flanders Fields’ following the Second Battle of Ypres. Two of our resident historians, Laura and Fraser, have marked the occasion by discussing how their appreciation of Remembrance Day has been shaped by their studies, and in particular, how being historians has influenced their choice of whether to wear a poppy. November 11 is one of the few days of the year where history is placed at the centre of public discourse as Britain stops to commemorate the victims of war. ![]()
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