Cape Town - Almost exactly a century ago a young Canadian soldier named John McCrae wrote about the blood-red flowers that bloomed during the spring of 1915 in the churned-up mud of the deadliest battlefield the world had yet seen.
And since then the poppy has been a symbol of remembrance – not of causes and ideals, nor of battles lost and won, but of the very human cost of such battles, in that great war and every conflict since. They’re also a symbol of our obligation to their families and their surviving comrades, many broken in body or spirit, all wounded in some way.
This Saturday the Big Red Machine, together with the MOTH Motorcycle Association, the Cape Town Rifles (Dukes) and the SA Legion will hold their annual Poppy Day bikers’ celebration at Fort Ikapa military base in Goodwood.
BE THERE
The ride to the venue will start at 11am from the Hells Angels clubhouse at 221 Kings Road, Brooklyn. All ex-servicemen and their families are also welcome at Fort Ikapa.
There will be a short parade and a wreath-laying ceremony, static displays, live music, and a strongman competition, with food stall and a well-stocked bar to sustain the inner rider.
Entry will be R60, a portion of which will go to the SA Legion, Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital and the MOTH Ex-Serviceman’s Cottage Association.
We celebrate Poppy Day in November as a reminder that at 11am on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 the guns fell silent across those bloodied fields, and as an unspoken prayer that one day they will fall silent again, everywhere, forever.