Britain has been said to be a nation bereft of symbols. But this weekend there will be one that will say the opposite: the poppy. It will be worn by many but few will realise it has a long and fascinating history.

It was introduced into this country by the Romans. Their mythology linked the papaver plant to Somnus, the god of sleep. The Greeks followed a similar line, connecting it to Hymnus, the god of rest and oblivion. Christianity gave its symbolism a new twist. Carved into the benches of some medieval church pews it represented the belief that we rest in anticipation of the Last Day. Cynics used to add that it also represented the slumber 'begun when the priest did speak!' Perhaps this explains why carved poppies were not a feature of all medieval church pews.

Slumber though is not behind the symbolism of today's usage of the poppy. A Canadian poet called John McCrae is the often overlooked inspiration. He was so moved by the spectacle of the makeshift graves of British soldiers in N. France that shortly before that war claimed him as another victim he wrote:

"In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely, singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields. "

It was his words that touched such a chord and gave that ancient symbol of the poppy its modern meaning. Those who choose to wear one this weekend will rightly want to remember those who in his poem are given the voice that death robbed them. But cannot we also in choosing to wear a poppy reconcile it with its older symbolism: believing that those who it represents will on the Last Day rise to share Christ's resurrection promise of 'New Life.'

DG