Rememberance day is a big deal here in Canada. Literally everyone buys a poppy and wears it, to show their gratitude for those veterans who gave their lives for their countries, and to help fund the Royal Canadian Legion, which supports those veterans who made it back alive. It always makes me proud to wear the poppy, to think of the sacrifices that were made by an entire generation of our countrymen (and countrywomen.)

While I don’t think Canadians are as flagrantly patriotic as Americans (maybe flagrantly is a poor word.) My perception is that Rememberance Day is a much bigger deal here in Canada than Veterans day is in the US. Please, if you’re one of my American readers, feel free to post disagreement with me on this topic. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that anyone has forgotten the sacrifices of their soldiers, it’s just that Veterans day doesn’t seem to have the same impact as Rememberance Day.

I especially can’t think of Rememberence day without remembering my grandparents who fought in WW2, and are no longer with us.

In 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