Poppy Day
ANZAC Day is a national day of commemoration observed on 25 April each year, honouring those who died serving New Zealand during war and returned and current servicemen and women.
25 April 1915 marks the day when the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) landed at Gallipoli in Turkey, the site of New Zealand’s first major battle of World War One where we lost over 2,700 New Zealand soldiers. Some say this was when New Zealand first and truly forged its Nationhood.
The ANZAC Day dawn service, first commemorated in 1916, is a moving commemoration and every year thousands of Kiwis attend services in their local communities.
Why a Red Poppy?
The red Poppy, or Flanders Poppy, was the first plant to emerge from the churned-up soil of the soldier’s graves and bombed fields of Northern France during the First World War. The Flanders Poppy was first immortalised as a symbol of worldwide remembrance in a poem by Lieutenant Colonel John McRae, a Canadian Medical Officer.
Madame Guerin, a French woman, formed the idea of widows and orphans manufacturing artificial poppies in Northern France to be sold for the benefit of veterans. Throughout 1920-1921, Madame Guerin and her representatives visited Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States with an appeal to adopt the Poppy as their national symbol of remembrance. They all did.
In New Zealand, the Poppy was first used as this symbol in 1922. Unlike Britain, Australia and Canada, New Zealand didn’t hold its first Poppy Day Appeal on Armistice Day (11 November), rather it chose ANZAC Day 1922, establishing forever its association with our ANZAC Day. In 1931, the NZRSA began producing poppies in NZ and these were made by disabled returned servicemen in Auckland and Christchurch.
Wear a Poppy
Poppy Day is usually the Friday before ANZAC Day, this year on 21 April 2017. Volunteers assist the local RSA in offering Poppies in exchange for a donation, which is used by the local RSA for welfare support to returned and ex-servicemen and women.
In Taupo, the Taupo RSA Trust is the major provider of welfare support to returned and ex-servicemen and women.
The RSA was formed in New Zealand in 1916 by returning Anzacs during World War One to provide support and comfort for service men and women and their families.