Remembrance Day or Poppy Day
By Tinnah Powell
These are my thoughts and mine alone, if you feel able please read to the end to get the full context.
Ever since finding out that the Red Poppy used to symbolize remembrance actually signifies blood & war, I’ve wonder why we’re encouraged to wear it? I now see that it could even be seen as a form of mockery, like the Tammuz cross. Especially as the first poppy worn was billed alongside the phrase ‘Lest we Forget’, meaning supposedly that we don’t see another war like ‘The Great War’, when that has not, nor will ever come to fruition sadly.
Scripturally speaking, Remembrance Day is a traditional secular observance, not a scriptural observance. It is the property, of the government. Following World War I, it was first proclaimed as a day of mourning and remembering by King George V for Great Britain. It was picked up in Canada, and since then has become a day to remember all those who fell in the service of their country.
So it is with caution that I approach this day as the purpose of The Path we walk is to worship YaHUaH our Aluah and proclaim the Basurah of Yahusha through Turah and Truth.
So, we should look at whether Remembrance Day could actually be a form of idolatry.
That means there are two things we should not do:
1) We should NOT worship our country because of its involvement in the world wars, as that would be idolatry.
2) We should NOT esteem war or esteem the dead of war as though they were the martyrs of a qadash cause; that would be to confuse the needs of states and governments and nations for security with the esteem of YaHUaH & Yahusha. Those are two very different things, and if we look at the record of history, whenever they have gotten confused, the people have usually gone astray.
Yes Remembrance Day is a day of grief. On this day people traditionally grieve over all the lives cut short by war, but especially over those they knew, or who were closely linked to them through family ties or through circles of friends.
The first “war” in scripture was the conflict between the first brothers, Cain and Abel. Abel had something that Cain wanted, and Cain, filled with envy and anger that he didn’t have it, thought that killing Abel was the solution (Genesis 4:1-8). And so, according to that narrative, was set in motion the endless cycle of violence and revenge that seems to be the hallmark of human history. Indeed, only a few chapters later, when YaHUaH decides to flood the earth and wash away humanity, the reason that HE gives is that there was so much evil, and that the human heart seemed set on violence, and so YaHUaH was sorry for having created the human species (Genesis 6:11-13).
If war is a hallmark of human history, then so is grief. But grief does not get esteemed in the histories of kings and nations! Instead, people have traditionally been expected to buck up and be strong.
But as Yahusha points out, this is not the way of YaHUaH. “Baruk are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” If you do not let yourself grieve, how can you ever expect to receive any comfort? We know from psychological studies and from experience, that if you stuff your emotional hurt down and try to hide it, it will only come out later in all kinds of unhealthy ways.
However scripture also states there to be a time limit on grieving:
In Deuteronomy 34:8, we are told that the children of Yaqub observed a mourning period: The Yasheralites grieved for Musah (Moses ) in the plains of Moab thirty days, until the time of weeping and mourning was over.
Genesis 50:10 notes the initial mourning period of 7 days for Yaqub. “When they reached the threshing floor of Atad, near the Yardan, they lamented loudly and bitterly; and there Yusaf observed a seven-day period of mourning for his father.” For a great or well-known person, a longer mourning period may have been common. When Aaron died, mourning also lasted for thirty days (Numbers 20:29).
That time limit is to safeguard our spiritual selves, from those who enjoy seeing us emotionally suffer and become drained. All of HIS statues and laws are to help safeguard us spiritually
So today if you grieve over those whose lives were cut short by war, by wearing a red poppy or attending a parade, you are potentially choosing to see them as heroes of wars that was not and is not (holy) qadash. They were VICTIMS of a war and however hard they fought, those, although not many are still with us today anymore, those who are alive today would tell you that they don’t see themselves as Hero’s, and have often said in history that they just did as they were told by higher ups & governments.
I’m sure all of those soldiers would have wanted no more war, rather than more be ‘remembered’ because of it.
I Pray for the victims of all wars and for the people still participating in this remembrance and esteem of wars, most will not mean it as idolatry or mockery, but by following this traditions, we are keeping that alive, so I pray that their eyes are opened to the evils of this world.
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