Remembering Remembrance Day

In the UK, November 11th is called "Remembrance Day", and is a day when military heroes are remembered and thanked for their services to the country. It is celebrated by wearing a small red paper poppy on your coat for the day, and placing a wreath of poppies at war sites and memorials.

Leading up to November 11th, I had been told of the tradition to wear poppies and that they would be handed out at local stores a few days before the actual day. So, I was not surprised when November 1st rolled around and a few people were wearing poppies. However, I was surprised on November 2nd when just about everyone I saw was wearing poppies. Where did they get them? The stores I had been to had not had a single whisper of a poppy yet. And yet some dogs had poppies to wear.

And I am sure this was all in my mind, but the closer it got to November 11th, the more I felt like people were watching me, wondering where my poppy was. I could just feel them thinking, 'Where is that girl's poppy? Does she hate love and joy?' But none of the stores had any poppies for sale, and I had no idea if there was some secret code word I needed to use to get one or what. Because I felt so judged, I would sometimes talk in a more stereotypical American accent so they would just think, 'Oh, she's just a silly American' and hopefully stop judging me. That was the only time I was comfortable with our stereotype.

As the day got closer though, eventually some stores did begin to sell poppies near by. It just was not until the 8th, or so. Some people were a bit too cool for the paper poppies at the store and had ones they clearly had made or bought to be reused. One woman had a crochet poppy. I saw another woman with a gold necklace one. One man had a real poppy attached to his jacket on November 11th, and there was  someone I saw with small silk ones. I even saw some people sporting multiple poppies at once.

The actual day was not very exciting compared to Guy Fawkes. There is a moment of silence at 11:00 AM all though out the country, but besides that and people laying down poppies at memorials, not much else happens.

Since my flatmates and I were on a train when 11:00 AM rolled around, we did not even get to experience the moment of silence since it was not announced on the train. We, however, did get to see lots of poppy wreaths at grave sites and memorials as we walked around that day. In fact, most of them are still up now, and probably will be up until the end of November.

Remembrance Day seems like a lovely for everyone to celebrate as it thanks current soldiers for all their hard work and fallen ones for their sacrifices, but it seemed to be a bit lost in all the tradition and formalities. (As America's Veterans Day is a bit, also.) I felt like there should have been a bit more going on in honor of the military, but I suppose the wave of poppies gets the message across as well.

Until next time...

Embrace the Odd,
Caitlin

"If God had really intended men to fly, he'd make it easier to get to the airport." -George Winters