Next: 11 Nov 2026
Remembrance Day
The red paper poppy on the lapel, for the war dead; some wear white for peace, and in France a blue cornflower.
The colours of Remembrance Day
The First World War ended at eleven o'clock on 11 November 1918, and the hour is still kept with two minutes of silence. In Britain, Canada and other Commonwealth countries people wear a red poppy in the weeks before. Wild red poppies grew thickly on the churned ground of the Flanders battlefields, and the poem In Flanders Fields, written by the Canadian doctor John McCrae in 1915, made them the flower of the dead. Paper poppies have been sold for veterans' charities since 1921. Wreaths of them are laid at memorials. Some people wear a white poppy, introduced in 1933, for all victims of war and for peace. In France the flower is the bleuet, the blue cornflower.
#D0021BPoppy redThe Flanders poppy.#111111Poppy blackThe centre of the flower.#2E7D32Leaf greenThe paper leaf on British poppies.#FFFFFFPeace whiteThe white poppy.#3B5FBDBleuet blueThe French cornflower of remembrance.Values are fair approximations, not official shades.
Read about the colours
Written by the Rang desk with AI assistance. Background: "Remembrance Day" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from family to family and place to place. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.