Camera Talk

Raleigh, NC , 05/01/2018

on Flickr





Full album here

A moving document. Is this a new memorial?

Good coverage of the event, Pablo.

PF

Very nice, here and in the album.

Very nice and interesting, one question... those red flowers, what are their name? Are they used normally to honoring/remembering those who are no longer here? Or for vets?
I asking coz in I found out here and in Spain these kind of flowers are completely different, cultural thing I guess.

alexvaras wrote:Very nice and interesting, one question... those red flowers, what are their name? Are they used normally to honoring/remembering those who are no longer here? Or for vets?
I asking coz in I found out here and in Spain these kind of flowers are completely different, cultural thing I guess.

Alex, they are poppies. The red poppy is used as a symbol to remember the fallen in the trenches of WW 1 because, after the fields were torn up by bombs and artillery shells, poppies would grow and bloom from seeds present in the soil.

These were ceramic poppies at The Tower of London:

Alex, I believe they are poppies. Yes, they were traditional in commemoration of deceased veterans, especially in WWI and WWII. Less so now, I think. Veterans organizations in the U.S. used to distribute artificial red poppies to be worn in the jacket lapel as a sign of respect for the war fallen. Maybe they still do in some places. See the famous poem "In Flanders Fields" which was written by a soldier in battle in Belgium in 1915 (http://www.flandersfieldsmusic.com/thepoem.html).

Graham and I responded to this question within minutes of each other. There is good information on use of artificial "commemoration poppies" in this Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remembrance_poppy. According to it, "... they were first adopted by the American Legion to commemorate American soldiers killed in that war (1914–1918). They were then adopted by military veterans' groups in parts of the British Empire."

jamesmck wrote: Veterans organizations in the U.S. used to distribute artificial red poppies to be worn in the jacket lapel as a sign of respect for the war fallen. Maybe they still do in some places."

They still do here in Canada.

This is from Remembrance Day (November 11th) a few years ago. The tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Ottawa; after the Remembrance Day ceremony people place their poppies on the tomb.

Shot this on Ektar. Might've gotten the exposure a bit off; that's uh kinda saturated - and blue.

Thank you all for your replies, something new to know
As for Spain, we do not honor our vets, still open wounds from the civil war at 1936, but we honor our relative deads, main flower is chrysanthemum.
Here in Russia the thing is absolutely different, in few days comes Victory Day and streets are going to be very crowded, the flower to the few vets alive is carnation, but on a non-even number, even numbered flowers are for the deads.

Julio, how is the thing over there?

Our last war was in 1904, a civil war. Whites against reds, last gasp of a civil struggle that started in 1839 or so. We were invited to WWII but did not attend, too busy with soccer.

Later on we got Cuban-inspired urban guerrillas in the 1960s. In Latin America these might be compared to a second half of the Spanish civil war. Those dead are still very contentious, same as in Spain. The politics have not settled down enough for conmemorations.

Some very old people still may bring flowers of the right color to tombs of each side of the 1904 war, but there are no formal conmemorations nor holidays for war veterans.