I guess it's very fitting, that my long awaited poppy blooming has occurred this weekend, in remembrance of the people who have served us in times of war. The poppy holds a lot of symbolic meaning for Memorial Day. It represents the blood lost by soldiers on the battlefields.
In 1915 a woman by the name of Moina Michel sold poppies as a way to encourage recognition of Memorial Day. The poppy is a wildflower, and it's seeds do not produce growth until they are disturbed. It is thought that in times of war, the soldiers marching through the fields turned the earth with their boots and poppies bloomed abundantly in places of desolation.
Let us all say our own type of pray for those who have sacrificed their time, work, and lives for our freedom!
11 comments:
What an interesting story re" poppies. I love them but can't seem to get them to grow,yours looks beautiful.
Sharon, Thanks for the history, I always bought poppies from the auxiliary women but never knew why poppies. Yours is beautiful.
Thanks ladies! It is by far my favorite flower, but they are very short lived, each bloom really only lasts a day.
Thanks Sharon. Today is especially hard for us in many ways as we remember the soldiers who were lost while serving with my son last year.
Sharon, what a wonderful post, such a beautiful poppy!
Thank you for the poppy story and picture. We are all so blessed to live in this country where freedom and patriotism are still alive and defended.
oh I just love poppies - what a beautiful picture!
I did not know that . My Poppies are always a bit slower then everyones . The still have several weeks to go . Julie
Thanks for sharing the story of the Poppies, I didn't know it.
God bless our soldiers!
Great post and I love your poppy. Mine are also in bloom, pictures will be forthcoming.
Sorry, in 1915 the United States hadn't even entered the 1914-1918 Great War/WW1.
Look up John McCrae, author in spring 1915 of 'In Flanders Fields' poem at a the battlefied grave of his friend Alexis Helmer.
He created this immediate connection of the wild red Flanders/Belgium poppy and the markers re Canadian Fallen at Ypres.
Ms. Michael in New York at the end of WW1 by why which time the US also had War Dead, decided to show her patriotism by wearing an artificial poppy. A couple of years later the fundraising tradition of British and Dominion Vets Legions began. We wear them in early November to honour our war dead of all wars.
Doctor, poet, army officer John McCrae of Guelph, Ontario, Canada himself became a Fallen soldier, in his 40s. Died of pneumonia in France in early 1918 - having seen his poem reproduced in UK "Punch" magazine 1915 Dec 8 anonymously.
Regards from Canada
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