I am watching CBC’s coverage of the US mid-term elections because they’re slightly less annoying than CNN/C-SPAN/Fox/ABC/etc. All the Canadian News people are wearing poppy pins, which led me down a Wikipedia rabbit hole on how the poppy flower is a symbol for remembering military service members. It dates back to a WWI era poem, and also inspired France to do create a similar bleuet de France.
It also led me to this 2015 article in which some Canadians considered it “defacing” the symbol to use a safer pin design than an inches long stick pin. I’m just glad USians aren’t the only that get mouth-frothing stupid about arbitrary symbols. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/remembrance-day-poppy-pin-that-won-t-fall-off-1.3311799
And your thoughts on whether one must use the original stick pin or is it ok and not actually “defacing” the symbol to use a safer pin design? That’s the “arbitrary” bit I was making fun of.
I don’t even wear one… Generally these things do have some protocol though - but I’m not Canadian and in the other Commonwealth countries I’ve spent Remembrance Day in I’ve never encountered this debate.