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?

I think if McCrae's poem had been about WW2 there would be less objection to that verse, as there is pretty widespread agreement that the fight against Nazism was essential, even in the context that war is always terrible. WW1 is from our viewpoint a tragic and pointless waste of young life on both sides that lead to nothing good. I don't think that is how many people, especially the bereaved, saw it in the spring of 1915 when it was written.

However, the poppy as a symbol of war isn't confined to that poem.

No, but I've been going annually since 2010, visit my great uncle's grave and I'm the twerp standing there with the most massive lump in my throat as the petals drift down.

In it's most basic, non-political sense, it is my thank you to him, a member of the family living in the freedom he sacrificed his life for.

It’s to remember those who gave their lives to keep us safe. Most of those were ordinary people. Your insinuation that people who wear poppies are celebrating those who are “waging war” on others is completely missing the mark.

The money raised by the sale of poppies to support current and former members of the armed forces. Not the safely long-dead ones who fought in ‘good wars’, and are frequently romanticised. They’re beyond the reach of money.

I'm also not British and have no familial connection to the UK. But jesus, you're either a bit dense, or being goady. It's hardly rocket science. Brits commemorate their fallen, those who sacrificed their lives for peace and freedom. Many, I presume, also have a personal connection - family members who fought and died/were in camps, etc. Well and the old 'those who cannot remember the past are bound to repeat it', I guess. How is this so very complicated, so you're unable to explain it to your kids?

Where I'm from, we also have remembrance days (multiple, for complicated historical reasons), although no special symbol like a poppy per se. Additionally, the russian symbol to 'celebrate the end of WWII' (Ribbon of Saint George) is banned in my country and any russian seen wearing it will be fined. For the simple reason that those fuckers occupied, tortured, raped and pillaged our country for a 100 years (50 years pre-WWII and 50 years post) and we, as a country, couldn't give two shits about their dead (serves them right, wish there were more) and their 'celebrations'. They call us ungrateful (to put it mildly, they call us fascists in reality), because they 'liberated us from the nazis'. Liberation russian-style: roll on with your tanks, 'liberate' and forget to leave for the next 50 years. They're 'liberating' Ukraine currently in just this very style.

i dont wear a poppy but i do acknowledge remembrance Sunday and leave flowers at the graves of ww1 soldiers in my local cemetery

To donate to the British Legion charity, as a mark of respect and gratitude to those who suffered and died so that we didn't have to, and to remember my grandfathers (one evacuated from Dunkirk and promptly redeployed to Burma; the other who went over on D-Day, was in Operation Market Garden and finally was in the unit that liberated Bergen Belsen. Never slept again at night for the rest of his days after that.) - they deserve better than the donning of a paper flower once a year, but it's the best that I can do.

You can raise money for one set and remember the rest. Plus of course those veterans of wars since WW2 who came home needing help. Or the families of those killed in more recent conflicts who need support.

We all sleep soundly in our beds because people who would do violence on our behalf walk the night.

Those people deserve recognition, gratitude, remembrance and support. The poppy symbolises that publicly and rises money.

So not just about remembrance of WW veterans then as some pp insist…

Not for me.

No, it isn't. I'm going to be honest and say that I cried the first year the Falklands vets marched at the cenotaph, perhaps because they are men of my generation. I protested against the Falklands war at the time (nothing else was seriously tried before sending a task force) and was called a traitor for it.

It doesn't stop me remembering eg the men who died on Sir Galahad and yes, the conscripts on the Belgrano. British soldiers were killed in Bosnia while acting as peacekeepers, including those attempting to defuse bombs. Should they not be remembered or their families helped?

It is reductive to think "WW1 tragic, WW2 valid, all other conflicts were fought by bad people who joined the army voluntarily".

I don’t think people think that @Uricon2.

But some insist that if you don’t wear a poppy you don’t honour the veterans of the WWs, when clearly the symbolism of the poppy is more complicated than that for many.

Because I am immensely proud of my grandfather, great uncle and their comrades and everyone who fought for our country during World War II. Also for my great, great uncle who fought and died in World War I.

Also to support our armed forces.

These days I feel like I should be apologising.

I do feel sad at the growing indifference and ignorance to their plight.

For what it's worth, I think any insistence people should or must wear poppies is totally wrong. We've had enough national symbols (St George's Cross, Union flag) hijacked and used for dubious purposes especially lately and I don't want the poppy to be similarly tainted.

I really don’t get the “I don’t wear one because I’m Irish” thing.

Two of my Irish Great Grandfathers fought in the First War and one my my Irish Grandfathers fought in the second.

They all wore Poppies.

In the Troubles there was atrocities committed on both sides.

To this day the British Army has a Royal Irish Regiment for Irishmen who don’t want to join the Irish Defence Forces and be stuck at home.

The poppies are to remember those that fought and died, not to “celebrate the British Army”.

All Catholic before anyone asks.

Just to say that this is happening in Belgrade. Although this event is being organised by the British Embassy, the people of Serbia remember that British women doctors and nurses served (and sometimes died there) during WW1.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ElsieInglis

ETA Can't get the link to the Embassy FB page to work. Sorry. The Wikipedia link explains about the work of Dr Elsie Inglis.

When I was a teenager in the 1980s, our Catholic next door neighbours used to invite us to enjoy their bonfire (with a Guy Fawkes effigy) and fireworks.

For me I wear it to remember my relatives who fought and died during WW1 and WW2. No other reason.

One of them barely out of his teens when was killed.

‘We all sleep soundly in our beds because people who would do violence on our behalf walk the night.’

What a load of balls. Walk the night, FFS.

I’ll do my remembering separately- without giving money to more recent soldiers.

How many Catholics in the Royal Irish Regiment - Google suggests 6% but maybe you have more accurate info?
Deleted to reflect that all your relatives were Catholic - they were unusual.

The religious make up of a British regiment is neither here nor there given that the Republic of Ireland is a separate country from the U.K.

Exactly despite being called the Royal Irish Regiment, it's nothing to do with being Irish.