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Remembrance Day and the Poppy Appeal

How the UK remembers its war dead each November and the symbolism of the red poppy.

Remembrance Day, on 11 November, marks the date the First World War ended in 1918. At 11:00 am — the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month — a two-minute silence is observed across the country to remember those who have died in conflicts since. The nearest Sunday is Remembrance Sunday, with services at war memorials in towns and villages across the UK.

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In the weeks beforehand many people wear a red paper poppy, sold by the Royal British Legion. The poppy was inspired by the poem In Flanders Fields by John McCrae and by the wild poppies that grew on the battlefields of the Western Front. Money raised supports veterans and their families.

You may be asked when Remembrance Day is (11 November), what the poppy commemorates, or which charity sells them (the Royal British Legion).

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