> Remembrance Day is observed on Nov 11 annually in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries to remember the end of the First World War on the same day in 1918 and as a way to remember the members of the armed forces who have died in the line of duty.
> Remembrance Day is marked by ceremonies held in the UK and Commonwealth countries on Remembrance Sunday, the second Sunday in November which is the Sunday nearest to Nov 11.
> It was first observed in 1919 and was known as Armistice Day until the end of the Second World War.
> It is usually observed by a one- to two-minute silence at 11am to represent the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918 when the guns of Europe fell silent at the end of the First World War.
> It is also known informally as Poppy Day, where the remembrance poppy, a red articifial poppy, is worn in the days leading up to Remembrance Sunday.
> The red poppy symbol was inspired by the poem In Flanders Fields, where the first two lines “In Flanders fields the poppies blow, between the crosses, row on row” allude to flowers growing over the graves of the soldiers who fell in Flanders.
> The poem, by Canadian physician Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae, was written on May 3, 1915. McCrae was inspired to write it after the death of a fellow soldier and friend Lieutenant Alexis Helmer at the Second Battle of Ypres in Belgium.
> For Malaysia, the British High Commission will be organising a Remembrance Sunday observation on Nov 13 at the Tugu Negara.
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