why do you wear a poppy?

[oiolehnvn]

Lots of red poppies around us at the moment. Disclaimer I am not British but come from a country that is currently waging a war, in fact technically two countries that have been in the news for waging wars and have always been uncomfortable with people supporting or celebrating our army. I am therefore puzzled as to why the Brits wear poppies ever year. If you choose to wear one, what's your rationale? Equally, if you do not - what's yours?

Lots of things are tradition, but doesn’t mean they can’t be questioned.

Fireworks are tradition and are questioned all the time, as an example.

In respect to past family members who fought in WWI and WWII. My nan always used to get me one as a child (whilst telling me about said relatives including her dad who was in the navy) and have just carried on that. 🤷

Both my parents served in WW2. Mum in the land army Dad in the RAF. They were both 18 years old. Dad was shot down and spent four years of his life in a POW camp. By the end of the war the only food they had in the camp was turnip and potato peelings which were thrown into the mud for them to scrabble around trying to get something to eat. When he was eventually released he weighed 6 stone. So many other young men and women sacrificed years of their lives or indeed made the ultimate sacrifice.

I remember my dad showing me a school photo of himself and the rest of his 6th form. All grinning at the camera. he pointed to himself and one other lad, and said 'we were the only two to make it through the war'

So that's why I wear my poppy to remember all those who gave so much for our freedom, In that war, the one before it and the ones that followed. And to help those injured or in reduced circumstances who fought for their country.

On a more individual note, 11th November is the anniversary of my Mum's death, so the day has a special poignancy for me.

Same

I put my change in the box every year and donate electronically along with amnesty international and drs without borders. But I stopped taking a poppy long ago. So I don't wear one.

Many many reasons. I contribute, I honour. That's all that matters to me. If anyone has an issue with that then it's theirs alone.

I put money in the collection box but wear a red poppy brooch as a symbol of remembrance for those who made the ultimate sacrifice in the two world wars and others since. The red represents the blood that was shed. I generally also wear a white poppy as a symbol of peace but this year l am wearing my red poppy brooch and a brooch with three small poppies - red, white and blue. The blue poppy should be purple because it symbolises the animals that died in the wars.

The OP said she was Russian. About 25 million Russians died as a direct result of WW2, so I think they would have some appreciation of the sacrifice and magnitude of that particular war

To honour those who went to war against fascism. My grandfather, my father in ww2, my husband who participated in the defence of minorities in former Yugoslavia and against islamofascism in Afghanistan.
Really, should it be down to a charity to support the victims of conflict and war? Then again could we trust successive governments to look after our troops and veterans?

Exactly my point (above).
OP, why didn’t you just do a google search? The thing is that your failure to do this makes people doubt your motives.

"If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori".

The thing is.... information is only on Google if people put it there. I often find when looking something up a suggested link is for a Mumsnet thread 😂

I don’t wear a poppy. I’m from Northern Ireland originally, and remembrance there has a very different history and emotional weight compared to the rest of the UK.

For many people in NI, the British Army wasn’t just something from history books. They were a visible presence on the streets during the Troubles. Some families experienced them as protectors; others experienced them as part of the conflict. So the poppy doesn’t feel neutral or purely commemorative to everyone. It can feel tied up with identity and trauma. It’s complicated, and people’s experiences are not the same — and that’s okay.

There’s also the history of Irish soldiers in WW1. Home Rule for Ireland had been passed but postponed when the war began, and many Irish men were encouraged to enlist on the understanding that supporting the war effort would help secure self-governance afterwards. Many genuinely believed they were fighting for Ireland. When the war ended and Home Rule was delayed again due to fears of unrest in Ulster, a lot of Irish families felt deeply betrayed. That’s part of why remembrance has a different meaning in Irish communities.

I absolutely respect that many people wear the poppy to honour the dead. I just think respect should go both ways — some of us remember in different ways because of our history, and that’s valid too.

A Google search will also show why many people DO NOT wear a poppy. And OP was genuinely, it seemed to me, curious about individuals motives.
Half the time people feel they have to wear it … not all those presenters, newsreaders, sports people want to particularly but the shit they get if they don’t kowtow can be immense.

I wear a poppy because my paternal grandfather died in Italy in 1944 serving our country and both my parents were in the services my dad in REME and my mom in the AT S so to me it's a reminder of people doing what needed doing in a very dark era of history and respect to those who did not come back home

To remember how awful war is and how we should really, really try to avoid it. Plus the donation helps veterans.

The mere fact that millions of men bled out into British soil trying to defend and protect the country and secure our way of life is plenty enough of a reason to wear a poppy. Not a white one, a red one. The poppy plant, the one with opiate within it.

Most didn't bleed onto "British soil".
Sorry to be picky.
UK had the blitz in WW2 (and a brief bit of zeppelin bombs in WW1) but much fighting didn't happen in the actual UK.

https://www.ppu.org.uk/

There. They've been going since 1934 so they're not a new organisation. Interestingly when the idea of wearing poppies was first mooted people wanted them to be white, but red was chosen.

White is for peace. White is a symbolic colour for many reasons in general. Peace, purity, innocence, etc.

Interesting the OP has disappeared after her request for ‘education’, and she hasn’t posted anything to say she now understands the emotional side of this issue, which was her premise for the thread.

I genuinely think OP had posted here to trigger arguments and it has worked a little. I’d love to know if the OP is actually a Russian Jewish person or if the OP is a bot of some kind, trying to sow upset around the poppy.

I think the OP is probably British, doesn’t like the poppy, and was hoping for some kind if culture war argument. The ‘naice’ reference was the final giveaway.

Ah sorry I have been back lots but also have a life you know. And it would be a messed up sorry to make up. It has been interesting to read everyone's take on it. It's not like I can come back with a big reveal. People have been kind and wrote hoe they see it and I have been learning more about it.

Plus just to say that if this was a bot then chances are it would indeed be a Russian one as you know they use mumsnet to sow disinformation.

A Russian Jewish person?

There are some proper weirdos on this thread.

Its to acknowledge that people, mostly younger than my own adult children lost their lives before they had even got properly started. I don't need to support the decisions made by politicians or military leaders to see the human sacrifice and not want the people who made it to be forgotten.

@SugarPlumpFairyCakes A Russian Jew- I should have used that phrase as that’s
the OP’s description