Country Studies / Holidays / Remembrance Day

Remembrance Day (Poppy Day)

Remembrance Day is observed throughout Britain in commemoration of the million or more British soldiers, sailors and airmen who lost their lives during the two World Wars. On that day special services are held in the churches and wreaths are laid at war memorials throughout the country and at London’s Cenotaph, where a great number of people gather to observe the two-minute silence and to perform the annual Remembrance Day ceremony. The silence begins at the first stroke of Big Ben booming 11 o’clock, and is broken only by the crash of distant artillery and perhaps by the murmur of a passing jet. When the two-minute silence is over, members of the Royal Family of their representatives and political leaders come forward to lay wreaths at the foot of the Cenotaph. Then comes the mach past the memorial of ex-servicemen and women, followed by an endless line of ordinary citizens who have come here with their personal wreaths and their sad memories.

On that day artificial poppies, a symbol of mourning, are traditionally sold in the streets everywhere, and people wear them in their button-holes. The money collected in this way is later used to help the men who had been crippled during the war and their dependants.

What is the significance of the poppy and when is it worn?

The poppy is traditionally worn on Remembrance Day in memory of service personnel who lost their lives in the First and Second World Wars and subsequent conflicts like the Falklands War and the Gulf War.

The red poppies represent the poppies that grew in the cornfields of Flanders in the First World War where many thousands of soldiers lost their lives. The paper poppies that are worn today are made by ex-service personnel and are sold by representatives of the Royal British Legion, an organization of ex-servicemen and women.

Remembrance Day falls on the nearest Sunday to 11 November – the day peace was declared. The day is commemorated by church services around the country and a parade of ex-service personnel in London’s Whitehall. Wreaths of poppies are left at the Cenotaph, a war memorial in Whitehall, built after the First World War.

By tradition, at 11:00 a.m. on Remembrance Sunday a two-minute silence is observed at the Cenotaph and elsewhere in the country to honour those who lost their lives.