After 100 years, the poppy is more than just a reminder of Canadian history
CBC
For Remembrance Day, Grade 3 students at Leonardo DaVinci Academy in Montreal, Que., had a special assignment.
They were asked to create and decorate their own poppy, bearing words they think most represent the symbol's meaning.
"I wrote 'brave soldiers' because all the soldiers were brave to go to war," said student Lily Bedard.
The kids then brought their creations together to create a collective mosaic that forms a larger flower.
"I hope there is never another war because it's a lot of damage and a lot of people died," said student Vincent Mollica.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the poppy as a symbol of remembrance, but for some Canadians, it's much more than just a reminder of the past.
It was a McGill medical lecturer and surgeon, John McCrae, who inspired the poppy's place in history.
He was a lieutenant-colonel serving as a medical officer in the Canadian Expeditionary Force in the spring of 1915 when he wrote his famous poem.
McCrae, who was born in Guelph, Ont., crafted the piece in Belgium following the death of a friend and fellow soldier at the second battle of Ypres.
That December, the poem appeared in the British magazine Punch. Within a matter of weeks, In Flanders Fields was being reprinted and featured at public rallies across Britain.
"In Flanders fields the poppies blow. Between the crosses, row on row," he wrote as the First World War entered its 11th month.
Poppies grew naturally on battlefields and on graves.
After the war, a French woman, Anna Guérin, was inspired by McCrae's poem. She sold cloth poppies to raise money for widows and orphans.
In 1921, she convinced the Great War Veterans Association, the group that would eventually become the Royal Canadian Legion, to embrace the flower as its symbol of remembrance.