From Wikipedia:
Remembrance Day or Armistice Day is a day of commemoration observed in the Commonwealth of Nations and various European countries (including France and Belgium) to commemorate World War I and other wars. It is observed on November 11 to recall the end of World War I on that date in 1918. Remembrance Day is specifically dedicated to members of the armed forces who were killed during war, and was created by King George V of the United Kingdom on November 7, 1919 upon the suggestion of Edward George Honey. . .
The poppy's significance to Remembrance Day is a result of Canadian military physician John McCrae's poem "In Flanders Fields." The poppy emblem was chosen because of the poppies that bloomed across some of the worst battlefields of Flanders in World War I, their red colour an appropriate symbol for the bloodshed of trench warfare. A French woman by the name of Madame E. Guérin introduced the widely used artificial poppies given out today. (Typically, these artificial poppies are given freely, though nearly all who accept them offer a small donation in return. $1.00 is common in Canada.) Some people choose to wear white poppies, which emphasises a desire for peaceful alternatives to military action.
More red poppies.
More white poppies.
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