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Why do the French use the blue cornflower rather than the red poppy as a symbol of war remembrance?

Question #110561. Asked by gmackematix.
Last updated Nov 29 2016.

LordBefalas
Answer has 11 votes
Currently Best Answer
LordBefalas

Answer has 11 votes.

Currently voted the best answer.
The tradition of the poppy comes from the poem "In Flanders Fields" by John McCrae. The French translation, "Au Champs d'Honneur" ("On the Field of Honor") refers to "coquelicots," which are also poppies.

But the French "bleuet" (which you're calling a "cornflower," although "bluebell" might be a better translation) precedes the Commonwealth tradition of poppies -- it originally commemorated the production of blue-colored cloth by wounded soldiers who fought in the 1914-1918 war as they recovered in the famous Paris hospital Les Invalides, and now the bleuet symbol honors all veterans. The poppies inspired by "In Flanders Fields" thus honor the dead; "les bleuets" honor the wounded.

link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bleuet_de_France

Response last updated by LadyNym on Nov 29 2016.
Nov 07 2009, 11:33 PM
gmackematix
Answer has 3 votes
gmackematix
21 year member
3194 replies

Answer has 3 votes.
Indeed, LB. According to a recent Radio 4 programme called "Poppies are Red, Cornflowers are Blue", while there are worries that the poppy is being too commercialised, for example, with all the Poppy branded souvenir products in Flanders, the cornflower or "bleuet" is having the opposite problem. Observance of the custom has faded greatly in recent years.

Nov 09 2009, 3:10 AM
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