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A red paper or enamel poppy worn in remembrance of war dead.
Also known as: Poppy symbol, Flanders poppy
Worn in Britain and the Commonwealth around 11 November. It comes from the poppies that grew on the disturbed ground of the Western Front, by way of the poem 'In Flanders Fields'. What wearing it means is itself contested, and the record says so.
Worn in remembrance of members of the armed forces who died in war, chiefly in Britain and the Commonwealth in the weeks before Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day.
Taken from the corn poppies that grew across the churned ground of the Western Front, and popularised by John McCrae's 1915 poem 'In Flanders Fields'. The Royal British Legion's appeal has sold them since 1921.
What the poppy expresses is disputed. The Legion states it is remembrance rather than endorsement of war; others read it as tacit support for military action, and white poppies are worn by those who wish to mark remembrance and pacifism together.
A live and well-documented disagreement about what the symbol expresses. The record states both readings and adopts neither.
A flower with four broad rounded petals around a dark circular centre, worn on the chest, usually with a small green leaf.
Both are worn on the chest to signal remembrance or support, and both are seasonal.