Poppy Day collecting bucket

item details

NamePoppy Day collecting bucket

ProductionRoyal New Zealand Returned and Services' Association; creating agency; early 2000s; New Zealand
Reese Plastics; manufacturer(s); early 2000s; New Zealand

Classificationbuckets

Materialsplastic, ink, metal

DimensionsOverall: 170mm (width), 152mm (height), 170mm (diameter)

Registration NumberGH024688

Credit lineGift of Royal New Zealand Returned and Services Association, 2015

Overview

This collecting box held poppies to sell in the lead up to Anzac Day in New Zealand in the early 2010s.

History

Red poppies were among the first flowers to grow in the mud and soil of the First World War battlefields in Flanders. Canadian Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae observed in his poem 'In Flanders fields': 'In Flanders fields the poppies blow / Between the crosses row on row...'. After his death in 1918, the poppy became a symbol of regeneration and growth.

New Zealand took up a French idea to wear poppies as such a symbol. In 1921, the New Zealand Returned Soldiers' Association (now known as the Royal New Zealand Returned Services' Association) placed an order for thousands of silk poppies made by the French Children's League. The first Poppy Day was going to take place around Armistice Day in November 1921 (as other countries were doing), but the ship carrying the poppies from France arrived in New Zealand too late, so the RSA decided to wait until Anzac Day, 1922. This first Poppy Day was a huge success, with some of the profits being sent to the French Children's League to help relieve suffering in war-ravaged areas of northern France. The RSA used the remainder to assist unemployed returned soldiers and their families. This tradition continues today with the funds providing welfare services to war veterans and the returned service community.

Anzac poppy

The Anzac poppy is the most powerful symbol relating to the impact of war in New Zealand society. The red poppy is an international symbol of war remembrance, and is usually worn in New Zealand in the week leading up to Anzac Day on 25 April each year, and can also be seen at major commemorative events, military funerals, war graves and cemeteries in New Zealand and around the world. Anzac Day is the anniversary of the landing of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps at Gallipoli in 1915, and is observed in New Zealand as a day of commemoration for those who have died in the service of their country and to honour returned servicemen and women.