Every year on November 11, Canadians honour the men and women who have served, and fought for Canada in the First World War (1914-1918), the Second World War (1939-1945), and the Korean War (1950-1953), as well as those who have served since then. More than 1,500,000 Canadians have served, and more than 100,000 have died. They gave their lives and their futures so that we may live in peace. Today, take a moment and thank the Canadians who have given up their lives for your freedom.
Like the Kaarthikai Poo, the poppy is worn as a symbol of remembrance throughout the month as a reminder of the sacrifice of the veterans. The idea of using the poppy as a means to support wounded veterans was an idea brought on by a French woman, Madame E. Guérin, who suggested the idea to British Field-Marshall Earl Haig. The first of these poppies were distributed in Canada in November of 1921, and the tradition has continued in Canada ever since.
All of us, growing up would have heard the heartfelt poem written by Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae, a doctor serving with the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps:
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.
John McCrae 11
The Canadian Tamil Youth Alliance encourages all its youth to take part in remembering and honouring the sacrifices of Canadian soldiers by wearing a poppy and taking part in the two minutes of silence on the 11th day, of the 11th month, of the 11th hour.
“Heroism is latent in every human soul – However humble or unknown, they (the veterans) have renounced what are accounted pleasures and cheerfully undertaken all the self-denials – privations, toils, dangers, sufferings, sicknesses, mutilations, life-” Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain
References:
Veterans Affairs Canada (http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/
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