Flanders Field

Happy Memorial Day! Today is the day the United States sets aside to honor the memory of people who have died in service to our country. This weekend I heard a beautiful poem that was written by Moina Michael in 1918 who is the school teacher that started the tradition of wearing a red poppy in honor of fallen heroes.  It is called "We Shall Keep the Faith" . The last verse is what started the tradition.

And now the Torch and Poppy Red
We wear in honor of our dead.
Fear not that ye have died for naught;
We'll teach the lesson that ye wrought
In Flanders Fields*.

I never knew why the veterans hand out red poppies today, but after reading the full poem as well as the poem "In Flanders Field" I understand and am deeply touched. I hope you can take a minute to follow the links to read them.

This tradition is easily worked into a wedding for those of you having  military wedding, or if you just want to honor our fallen. You can wear a red poppy such as the one above by In a Frenzy , or you can make a donation to a Veteran's charity as your favors and print an explination card up on paper like the one below that I found in Just Another Day's shop

*(Flanders Field is an American cemetery in Belgium for soldiers who died in battle there)

Comments

[Kat]

That is indeed a beautiful idea to honor the fallen, but may I point out that Flanders is actually in Belgium and partly in France; and the cemetary you mention is in Belgium, not Germany?

Enjoying your blog, thank you for the nice work!

Kat

[Lynn]

You are so right Kat - Thanks for the catch on that one! I'm still trying to figure out how I got it wrong. I guess it was one of those times my head said one thing and my fingers typed something different

[Soy Candles]

I love the blue & reddish orange color scheme. Very nice!