It is 8pm in the Belgian town of YpresA town in the Belgian province of West Flanders surrounded by many cemeteries, memorials and war museums honouring the battles of World War One.. A crowd of people line the road that passes through the vast monument called the Menin Gate. Around them, the walls carry the names of 54,896 soldiers who were killed on a nearby battlefield in World War One, and whose bodies were never found. As the hour strikes, the crowd falls silent and buglersSomeone who plays the bugle, a small brass instrument like a trumpet. sound the first melancholyA feeling of sadness. notes of The Last Post.¹

This ceremony takes place every day of the year. But in Britain the memory of those who gave their lives in this and other conflicts is focused on one particular date: 11 November, the anniversary of the armisticeA truce or agreement to stop fighting for a certain amount of time. which brought the war to an end. Its symbol is the red poppy which many people wear.

The poppies are made by the Royal British LegionA British charity providing financial, social and emotional support to members and veterans of the Armed Forces., and the money raised from selling them goes to veteransPeople who used to serve in the army. ' organisations. Some people, though, refuse to wear them, while others prefer ones of a different colour.

White poppies symbolise peace and commemorateRecall or show respect for someone or something. all people who died in conflict. Purple ones remember animals that have been victims of war. Black ones are for people from Africa and the Caribbean who contributed to Britain's war effort.

The poppy tradition was inspired by a poem, In Flanders Fields, written in 1915 by a Canadian soldier called John McCrae. The poem begins: "In Flanders fields, the poppies blow/Between the crosses, row on row..."

In 1918 Moina Michael, an American academic, had the idea of selling silk poppies to raise money for disabled veterans.

According to the Royal British Legion, the poppy "honours those who serve to defend our democratic freedoms and way of life." It does not glorifyTo praise or worship. war, but is "a sign of both remembrance and hope for a peaceful future."

Not everyone is convinced. Writing in The Guardian, Suzanne Moore explained that for a long time she refused to wear a poppy. She had read poems like Wilfred OwenA famous English poet and soldier of the First World War.'s Dulce et Decorum Est, and felt that poppies glorified war. She also felt that remembrance was something to do in private, not public.

But she later changed her mind: "The act of remembrance is significant because forgetting is what destroys us... One does not end conflict by shouting about how war is wrong. It is ended by diplomacyThe art of dealing with people in a sensitive way. , compromise and talking to the enemy."

Yes: It presents those who fought as heroes of whom their country should be proud, rather than as victims whose deaths - like those of the enemies they killed - we should be ashamed of.

No: It reminds us of the terrible waste of life and legacy of suffering that conflicts bring, from World War One with its millions of dead to the victims of the present war between Hamas and Israel. 

Or... While all the victims of war deserve to be remembered, those who volunteered to risk their lives fighting for a cause they believed in all deserve a special place in our hearts.