Thoughts on Remembrance Day

I joined a choir this fall, as I hadn't been in one since UAMC then our med students' choir, and missed it - so I joined the Cosmopolitan Chorus of the Cosmopolitan Music Society. We had our first concert last Sunday, Lest We Forget, a Remembrance Day tribute. The choir members got to sit in the choir loft at Winspear the entire time, even though we only sang in the second half - I didn't realize prior to the dress rehearsal that afternoon how many others were involved besides the Cosmo bands and chorus - Tommy Banks not just as MC but also played/conducted, a piano concerto with Michael Massey, the Vimy Ridge Academy Pipe Band, and several solo vocalists. Very patriotic and well-received by all the veterans (and others) in the audience. I feel absolved of any guilt for having to work on Remembrance Day previously (the last few years I never even managed to be anywhere where poppies were sold - but I have one this year).

As for poppies, according to Colby Cosh and Bourque Newswatch, it would seem that the Legion has trademarked the poppy symbol and is forbidding anyone from posting it on a website, even with the purpose of promoting poppy sales and remembrance of our veterans. Interesting ...

I was intrigued to read in the paper earlier this week how in Newfoundland, the true "remembrance" actually takes place on July 1, when they commemorate the battle of Beaumont Hamel in 1916 - out of 780 Newfoundlanders there were 684 casualties:

In Mary Walsh's corner of the country, Nov. 11 plays only a supporting role in the annual ritual of wartime remembrance. The real commemorations -- the genuine acts of tribute and sadness -- take place in Newfoundland on July 1, when the rest of Canada is having a party and setting off fireworks.

At the national ceremonies today in Ottawa, the mother of Marc Leger was the Silver Cross mother - he was one of the four soldiers from Edmonton Garrison who were killed in a friendly-fire incident in Afghanistan. And apparently, there were no World War I veterans at the Ottawa ceremony today - there are only 5 left in Canada with an average age of 103.

And I just saw an interesting interview on TV about why there would have been so many poppies during WWI - a botanist from UBC mentioned how poppy seeds lie in the ground for up to 100 years if undisturbed, so it was likely all the disruption to the ground (bombing, digging graves) that brought the seeds up to the surface and caused so many of them to germinate.

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.