In Canada, the U.K. and Australia, today is Remembrance Day, formerly Armistice Day. Thanks to a NM friend from the U.K., we learned that on the 11th hour of the 11th day of November, 1918, the guns fell silent in Europe, signaling the end of World War I. And, from that point forward, the day has always been remembered in honor of the fallen.

For the past week, citizens in these countries have been wearing poppies leading up to Remembrance Day. Why the poppy? It was Dr. John McCrae of the Canadian Armed Forces, who in 1915 wrote the following poem while serving in Flanders, in the western part of Belgium, one of bloodiest theatres of the war:

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.

-John McCrae