Religious Dimension
REMEMBRANCE DAY
On Saturday was Remembrance Day, the 11th of November. Remembrance Day is an important day in Australia, and across the world. We remember the sacrifice of those who have died for Australia in wars and conflicts.
In 1918, at 11am on the 11th of November, fighting in the First World War come to an end. The guns of the Western Front fell silent after more than four years of continuous warfare. Now, over 100 years later, we pause for a minute at 11am on this day, the 11th of November, to remember the service and sacrifice of those who have died and suffered in all wars and conflicts. Red poppies are worn on Remembrance Day.
Red poppies are inspired by the thousands that grew across the battlefields of the Western Front.
Significance of poppies
Red poppies are often worn on Remembrance Day. The tradition has its origins in a poem written in 1915 by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, a doctor in the Royal Canadian Medical Corps. Lieutenant Colonel McCrae noticed that, despite the devastation caused by the war to towns, farms and forests, thousands of small red poppies began growing everywhere in Spring. This inspired his poem, 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.
Jacqui Hayes