A circulating message describes the encounter between a man and a lady where the man repositions her poppy and tells her the meaning behind it as well as the correct way to wear it.
In the message, the man tells the lady to wear the poppy on the right hand side, and claims the red colour represents the blood of all those that sacrificed their lives for their country.
As example of the message as it appeared on Facebook can be seen below –
Today I saw a man selling poppies stop a lady and asked if he could re position her poppy. While doing so he told that lady she should wear the poppy on their right side; the red represents the blood of all those who gave their lives, the black represents the mourning of those who didn’t have their loved ones return home, and the green leaf represents the grass and crops growing and future prosperity after the war destroyed so much. The leaf should be positioned at 11 o’clock to represent the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the time that World War One formally ended. He was worried that younger generations wouldn’t understand this and his generation wouldn’t be around for much longer to teach them. (copy and paste to share just like I did) 🌹 we must remember those from our current wars too!”
I copied this from someone else. Please do the same to pass this knowledge on to those who don’t know the meaning.
As for the interaction between the man and the lady, this appears to be true, and describes an encounter that occurred in 2015 between a man described as a military veteran and Karen Lowton, that happened in London. Their encounter had been reported in the media soon after Lowton had shared details about it to her social media profile.
As for the claim by our veteran about how to properly wear a poppy and what it represents, the accuracy of those claims is a tad more ambiguous.
The poppy was soon adopted as a symbol of remembrance in 1921 to commemorate all of those lives lost in battle. It is widely accepted that the poppy was chosen because of its resilient nature that caused it to be one of the first flowers to bloom across many of the battlefields left scarred after the fighting that occurred during the First World War. This was further cemented after the famous poem “In Flanders Fields” by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae that mentioned the flower in its first line.
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As such, the red black and green featured on the artificial poppy we know today are those colours simply because they are the colours of their real life counterpart. The black bud. The red petal and the green leaves and stem.
Over the years, people have inferred their own meanings onto the poppy and what it represents and how it should be worn. That is, of course, absolutely fine, since we are all entitled to remember and commemorate Remembrance Day and the Remembrance Poppy in any way we like.
As such, the claim that the poppy’s red petals represent the blood of the fallen, the black represents the mourning of those aggrieved and the green represents regrowth has become a popular way among many to interpret the poppy and its colours. While many may argue that this is not the originally intended purpose, it nonetheless serves as a way for many to remember those who have fallen and their sacrifices.
In a similar fashion is the claim that the leaf should point to the 11 o’clock position to commemorate the 11th hour of the 11th day, which again is a popular way many believe a poppy should be positioned.
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What side to wear your poppy – the left or right – is also a point of contention, with the above message stating the right hand side. Many assert it should be on your left, as to make it closer to your heart. Others point to the fact that the Queen traditionally wears hers on her left hand side (many rumours claim that only the Royal Family are permitted to wear their poppies on the left hand side, though this is untrue.) Others claim men should wear it on left and women on the right.
The bottom line to all of this, is that there is no right or wrong way to wear a poppy, or how you should interpret its meaning, as long as it’s done so respectfully. We can turn to the Royal British Legion for the final comment, who has said many years ago in response to these issues described above, that the best way to wear your poppy is to wear it with pride. And we agree.
There is no right or wrong way to wear a poppy. It is a matter of personal choice whether an individual chooses to wear a poppy and also how they choose to wear it…The best way wear a poppy, is to wear it with pride