Talk:Poppy
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Actual blood?
[edit]...not just from the red flower that grew in great numbers but also from the actual blood of the dead soldiers that lay scattered and untended to on the otherwise barren battlegrounds"
Um, no way. Blood quickly oxidizes, turning brown. There is no way a battlefield was blood red for very long, as this seems to imply. If it is meant to symbolize blood spilled in battle, fine. Say that, and not silliness like this. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.72.162.157 (talk) 16:45, 22 May 2008 (UTC)
Why are you reading this? Random, huh. It is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo long, don't you think? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.30.107.227 (talk) 17:36, 19 June 2011 (UTC)
- A rusty brown all over the land would probably be some pretty red dirt. It doesn't necessarily mean 🔴 red, my dude. (sorry if you get notified by this I just am really high and can't restrain myself because this is such a bizarre perspective to me lol) 96.3.27.144 (talk) 00:01, 1 May 2023 (UTC)
Wearing of poppies in the US??
[edit]The article currently says: "In the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand artificial poppies (plastic in Canada, paper in the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand) are worn to commemorate those who died in war. This form of commemoration is associated with Veterans Day in the United States and with Remembrance Day in the Commonwealth, both of which fall on November 11."
I strenuously challenge the claim that the wearing of poppies is widespread in the US. In my experience, the custom is virtually unknown in the US at the present time. I also question the claim that the wearing of poppies in the US (to the extent that this practice currently exists at all) is or ever was associated with Veterans' Day (as opposed to Memorial Day).
Two sources are currently being cited in support of the claim that this is a customary practice in the US. The first is an article in The World Book Dictionary, which gives one definition of "poppy" as "an artificial flower resembling a poppy sold in an annual drive by the American Legion and several other veterans' groups as a means of raising funds for their charitable activities." This source does not say how widely such poppies are sold or worn, so it doesn't seem to me to be appropriate to use this source in a context where the implication is being made that the custom is widespread in the US (especially not in juxtaposition with the state of affairs in Commonwealth countries, where poppies are truly ubiquitous around Remembrance Day).
The second source is an 2004 excerpt from the Congressional Record, in which various members of Congress encourage the practice of wearing poppies on Memorial Day. It is mentioned (page 10121) that "there was a time in our Nation when all Americans on Memorial Day wore a red poppy" — but also that "Sadly, the true meaning of Memorial Day seems to have faded over the years". While this source does suggest that some people have supported a revival of the poppy tradition in the US, that is not the same as claiming that this is in fact a widespread tradition.
Additionally, the portion of the article which I quoted above claims that the wearing of poppies is "associated with Veterans Day in the United States" — whereas the Congressional Record source talks about Memorial Day, and the World Book Dictionary source doesn't talk about a specific timing of the "annual drive".
All in all, I do not believe the cited sources adequately substantiate the claim that this custom, in the US, is on a par with similar traditions in Commonwealth countries. And I do believe the great majority of American editors here would confirm that, now and in the reasonably recalled past, there is not and has not been any such tradition active in the US — and to insist on claiming the contrary based on ambiguous sources like this is (in my view) interpreting the maxim of "verifiability, not truth" in a way that no one would or should really want to do.
For what little it may be worth here: I wear a Canadian poppy every year in the couple of weeks leading up to Remembrance Day; and in the more than a dozen years during which I've kept up this tradition since moving back to the US, my experience has been that almost no one has the slightest clue regarding the significance of my "pretty red flower". Generally, the only people who have indicated to me that they recognized the symbol have been other Canadians, people who have spent time living in Commonwealth countries, or elderly people who remember the poppy tradition in the US from long, long ago. — Richwales (talk) 06:56, 11 November 2011 (UTC)
Complicated relationship of wearing a poppy in Ireland
[edit]As recorded on the main page, it's considered a show of wartime rememberance, particularly in the UK. However, in Ireland, it's not so positively regarded. It's viewed along very partisan lines, and outside of Northern Ireland, wearing a poppy is often seen as provocative.
Clearly, this can be a complicated issue and can't be reduced to a paragraph, but generally speaking, British soldiers aren't fondly remembered in much of Ireland. Davidfmurphy (talk) 19:15, 28 January 2025 (UTC)