Memorial Day

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Most folks think Memorial Day started after WW1, but it was created to honor all the dead from the Civil War. After WW1, those dead were added, and after WW2 they created Veterns Day to honor all who fought or served.

As a boy, we had to learn this poem in School:

In Flander's 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 Flander's fields.

Take up our quarel 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 Flander's fields.

Today, the choir and I sang an arrangenment of it. It was one of the best anthems we ever did. Haunting is not a word I use referring to church services, but it is the best description of the way the song was presented. We did the center section acapella.

To those who have family, loved ones, or friends who gave it all in our battles ... you have my thanks for their sacrifice and my sincere sympathy for your loss.

 

[12345678910]

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Thanks, It was a typo or an autocorrect.

 

[cudgee]

Most folks think Memorial Day started after WW1, but it was created to honor all the dead from the Civil War. After WW1, those dead were added, and after WW2 they created Veterns Day to honor all who fought or served.

As a boy, we had to learn this poem in School:

In Flander's 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 Flander's fields.

Take up our quarel 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 Flander's fields.

Today, the choir and I sang an arrangenment of it. It was one of the best anthems we ever did. Haunting is not a word I use referring to church services, but it is the best description of the way the song was presented. We did the center section acapella.

To those who have family, loved ones, or friends who gave it all in our battles ... you have my thanks for their sacrifice and my sincere sympathy for your loss.

Well said, and i reiterate your thoughts.

 

[jdm61]

It is interesting how we ended up adopting that poem as it was written by a Canadian colonel/doctor who served the the British forces at Ypres. The symbol of Remembrance Day/Armistice (November 11) in the UK is the red poppy, but was also adopted very early on after WW1 by the American Legion and eventually adopted for the new Memorial Day holiday. We later plugged he Veterans Day holiday into the old Armistice Day slot in November. the history of Memorial Day is tha big more cloudy. Some woudlargue tha it came to be DURING the Civil War.Tohers would say a little later and that the newly formed AmericnaLegion took over the holiday from the old Grand Army of the Republic group after WW1. Some say that the date (last weekend in May) was chosen because it did Not coincide within particularity Civil War battle AND flowers would be in bloom by then, even way north. Got to have flowers to decorate the graves properly.

 

[Justin Schmidt]

Till Valhalla to all my brothers and sisters who never came back. You are gone but not forgotten. Cheers boys