Empty Chair Ceremony
In Flanders Fields
BY JOHN MCCRAE
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.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
The “Vacant” or (Empty) Chair Ceremony dates back to 1875, a decade after the close of the American Civil War when it was used in Masonic Lodges to pay tribute to those who did not return from the war. Since then it has been used by many Lodges at Remembrance Day to pay homage to those Brother Masons who fell during WWI, WWII, and the other wars.
Poppies to Remember
BY ERIN MARLEY – age 12
I’ve always known that poppies grow
Beneath the crosses row by row
But I’ve never really questioned why
They chose to grow where dead men lie.
Why choose to thrive where war once reigned
Where the world was full of terror and pain
Where many good men fought and fell
Fighting to survive that living hell
I questioned why, so now I know
Why they survive beneath the rows
They don’t grow as a garden, not as of yet
They grow as a reminder
“Lest we forget”