> > Canadians have a "Remember the Canadians who were in wars" day, but it's called, more appropriately, "Rememberance Day". It falls on November 11th, the same day as the American Veterans' Day. They give us a day off of school for it. If you want to look cool, you wear a plastic poppy as Rememberance Day approaches to show (somehow) that your remember the Canadians who were in wars...when it's actually Rememberance day, though, you're at home asleep or playing computer games, so nobody cares whether you wear a poppy or not!

Poppies as a symbol of war remembrance date back to World War I, via this famous poem, written by John McRae in 1915.

In Flanders Fields the poppies grow
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 Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel 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 Flanders fields.