Why did poppies grow after world war 1?

Answer 1

Long known as the corn poppy (Papaver rhoeas) because it flourishes as a weed in grain fields, the Flanders poppy as it is now usually called, grew profusely in the trenches and craters of the war zone. Artillery shells and shrapnel stirred up the earth and exposed the seeds to the light they needed to germinate.

Answer 2

Poppies are now worn to commemorate the dead of all armed conflict. The tradition started after the First World War and became the symbol of remembrance because during some of the worst fighting in World War 1, in Flanders in Belgium (particularly the battles of Ypres where there were hundreds of thousands of casualties) where the earth had been blasted and churned into mud, poppies were the first plants to grow back after the fighting ended and formed a carpet of red blooms.

This was immortalised in the poem "In Flanders Fields" by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae a Canadian surgeon who treated injured soldiers during the second battle of Ypres:

"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..."
Later poppies were collected and sold, the money going to various charities that helped veterans. There is commonly a two minute silence every 11 November in the UK at 11:00am and again at 11am on the nearest Sunday to the 11th to think about what they did for us.

As such we wear poppies in November to remember those soldiers that gave their lives up for us in the service of their country.

Answer 3

The poppy that is used is the red corn poppy; the reason it is used is because on many fields on the battlefield of WW1 but most notable Flander's field poppies would thrive in disturbed soil. So on the battlefield where there was continual shelling it thrived. The fields were thus covered in red from the poppies and the blood of fallen soldiers and well at stuff like this its only natural that the poppy would be used as a symbol to commemorate the fallen

Answer 4

People wear poppies on Remembrance day as their are so many people who have died whilst fighting in the war. These people who have died have been fighting to help our country. In the western part of Belgium there is a place called Flanders. Flanders was a place of Buildings, roads, trees, home, farms and nature. After the war there was only mud but there was one thing still alive. A poppy.

Why do we wear a poppy?

In 1918 Moira Michael an American, wrote a poem in reply, 'We shall keep the faith' in which she promised to wear a poppy 'in honour of our dead'. This began the tradition of wearing a poppy in remembrance. The money that we raise by buying a poppy goes to the Royal British Legion. All the Poppies are made by hand.

So that is why people wear poppies on Remembrance day..

Answer 5

It was actually because the bombs churned all the soil over bringing seeds up to the surface from the old poppy fields that were their long before the war.

It rained nearly all the time so to say "soldiers blood acted like water" is the reason they grew is ridiculous.

By Dan Waite

ORIGINAL ANSWER:

The battlefield that they fought in used to be a poppy plantation? :) And the soldiers blood acted like water? You see, many soldiers died and ten per cent of the blood is water, and there was lots of blood, meaning lots of water, and the seeds grew?

Or maybe it was just a blessing from god. Or a flower created from blood.

Answer 6

They were originally worn in memory of the people who died in World War I, but now honours veterans of all wars. The money raised by the sale of poppies is used to support veterans and their families.

Answer 7

people wear poppies to pay respect to the dead soldiers who sacrificed their lives for us and our nation.