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 grow; In Flanders fields.
: - Captain John D. McCrae

Why we wear Red Poppies?

This Memorial Day tradition was inspired by a 1915 poem written by Moina Michael after reading "In Flanders Fields":

We cherish too, the Poppy red

That grows on fields where valor led,

In seems to signal to the skies,

That blood of heroes never dies.

During the Napoleonic Wars, the poppy drew attention as the mysterious flower that bloomed over the graves of fallen soldiers. In the 20th Century, the poppy again was widely noticed after soils in France and Belgium became rich in lime from rubble during the First World War. The little red flowers flourished around the graves of the war dead as they had 100 years earlier.

In 1915, Canadian physician John McCrae recorded this phenomenon in his famous poem "In Flanders Fields".

Two days before the Armistice, American Moina Michael read the McCrae poem and was inspired to wear a poppy year-round in memory of the war dead. In 1920, Madame E. Guerin of France visited the United States and happened to meet Miss Michael at Columbia University YMCA. Mme. Guerin then resolved to sell handmade poppies around Armistice Day to raise money for poor children in the war-torn areas of Europe. This idea quickly spread to support disabled veterans, widowed women and orphaned children in North America and Europe in the aftermath of World War I. This practice of commemoration and support continues as an expected part of the American Memorial Day observance.