canadian-space-agency:

The Canadian Space Agency is proud to have many Veterans among its employees. On this Remembrance Day, join us in thanking them and all Canadian Veterans for their courage, service and sacrifices that have kept our nation strong, proud and free.

(The poppy pin shown above is either old-fashioned or foreign, I’m not sure which. This is what a modern-day Canadian poppy pin looks like. I’m not complaining about the CSA’s choice of picture, but I thought I should give you the correct mental image for what I’m about to tell you.)

The importance Canadians place on Remembrance Day and World War I is probably the biggest thing that surprised me about Canada. I had no idea until after I moved here.

My first November here, the very first time I ever saw someone wearing a poppy pin, I told her I liked her flower. She was rather surprised. I was nearly fourteen: surely I knew what a poppy pin was? But I didn’t, and the people there had to explain to me.

The first time someone referenced “In Flanders Fields” in front of me, I didn’t know what they were talking about. They were surprised: surely I’d had to memorise it in school a few grades back? But I hadn’t, and they had to explain to me.

I memorised it on my own not long after that; I wanted to be more a part of my adopted country. I visited two World War I museums to learn the things a Canadian ought to know. I bought a poppy pin from one of the countless donation boxes for the Royal Canadian Legion, and I try to wear it whenever leaving the house during the first eleven days of November, as Canadians do. This is my country too, now, and its customs are mine.

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Tags:

#Remembrance Day #our home and cherished land #cultural differences #the more you know