Poppies: Flowers of remembrance for fallen veterans

Poppy

(CNN) -- If you give a donation to the U.S. Veterans of Foreign Wars on Saturday, Veterans Day, you'll get a little red poppy in return.

Why the paper flower?

The answer is rooted in a poem from World War I that was inspired by the battlefields of the Western Front. Poppies, common in Europe, flourish in churned-up soil, and sprouted in profusion in the fields rooted up by battle. Those fields now hold the bodies of the men who gave their lives there.

In May 1915, before the United States entered the war, Canadian Lt. Col. John McCrae wrote one of the most famous war poems of the 20th century after the death of a friend, as poppies blossomed around him.

            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.

            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.

The practice of honoring Americans who served their country during war started as Armistice Day, the end of World War I.

Today, VFW Buddy Poppies are assembled by disabled, needy and aging veterans in Veterans Administration hospitals around the country.

Proceeds go toward veterans who assembled the poppies; to maintain state and national veterans' rehabilitation and service programs, and to help support the VFW National Home for orphans and widows.

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