On the House: Remembrance Sunday– November 2009
I had never considered what tourists make of the British during early November when the majority of us are, as we carry out our daily lives, sporting a red paper poppy on our lapels, until I was recently stopped by a young tourist who curiously enquired as to the reason why these red flowers were suddenly in abundance throughout the country.
The United Kingdom, like many other countries in the world, has a specific day to commemorate the sacrifices of members of the Armed Forces and of civilians in times of war and, for Britain, Armistice Day is the anniversary of the symbolic end of World War I on 11 November 1918. It commemorates the armistice signed between the Allies and Germany for the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front, which took effect at eleven o'clock in the morning - the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month".
The concept of using the poppy as the official symbol of remembrance stems from possibly the most famous poem written during World War I, Canadian physician and Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae’s In Flanders Fields. The poppies referenced in the poem grew in profusion in Flanders in the spoiled earth of the battlefields and cemeteries where war casualties were buried, acting as a constant reminder of those who had fallen.
Chelmsford, like hundreds of towns and villages across the country honours Remembrance Sunday with a dedicated parade, which, in our case, culminates at the town’s Cenotaph. I always find it heartening at the number of people who make the effort to line the streets, poppies intact, for the service to honour the huge debt of gratitude we owe all those who have fought and died on behalf of our country.
For a tourist coming to the United Kingdom for the first time in early November, I can appreciate what a curious sight the hundreds of thousands of poppy-wearing people must be; but in the 21st Century, at a time where there is so much individual independence and divided opinion, Remembrance Sunday is a wonderful occasion that is to be cherished, not just as a formal tradition or act of remembrance – though both essential aspects – but as the continued process of bringing a nation together to honour those who have sacrificed so much and to recognise the things that are truly important.
I imagine that the majority of people did not attend a Remembrance Sunday service this year, but I am confident that only a very small minority will have failed to wear their poppy with pride. It is typically British to be understated when publicly expressing an opinion but the poppy allows the country to do this modestly and as one; this is how Britain as a nation together solemnly expresses its condolences and this huge coming together is truly something to be valued.
