Nov 04
11
Remembrance Day
Today is Remembrance Day in Canada. On 11th month, 11th day and 11th hour people stay still for a couple of minutes to pray for the fallen during the war.
The Poppies
One most unique thing about remembering this event, especially in the Commonwealth countries, is most people wear a plastic red poppy flower on their left lapel of their garment (as close as possible to the heart). They wore it since October 25th until November 11th. It was a great spectacle seeing most people wearing the same kind of symbol for more than 2 weeks.
After thought
I remember that Indonesia have the same kind of remembrance day on November 10th, it’s called “Heroes Day”. Jay wrote an article about it (In Indonesian). But the spirit is way much different. I think most Indonesian lost their faith to the heroes or those who died during the war… I don’t know why, maybe because we are tired of the bombardment of “heroic tale” during Suharto’s regime or maybe we just a nation that forget something so fast.
Watching Remembrance Day celebration in Canada make me wonder, could it be a nation became so great because they remembered their heroes?
2 Comments
Hi Avi: Got your blog by coincidence! I like it… cool :) Glad I found another Indonesian in Canada :) Yeah, Canada has gone through many things to reach to this state… Indonesia too, only if we want to acknowledge the past and learn from it. BTW, Canada (and I think as any other countries) has a a dark secret too…
Cheers from Toronto
Firda @ November 12, 2004 11:44 AM
A school boy gave me one of those poppies when we went to a shopping mall in Guelph a couple of weeks back. I really liked it. I told my boyfriend that I liked it so much I’d wear the poppy all year long but he said that if I wore it after November 11, people would look at me funny. Oh well.
(Sorry I still haven’t got around to replying to your email but I am back in Canada! Yay!)