LONDON, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- More than 120,000 crosses, each with a red poppy, have been planted in six fields of remembrance across Britain by friends and relatives remembering the fallen heroes of two world wars and other conflicts.
Ageing military veterans, wearing their medals, including many who survived the battlefields, were among those paying tribute to comrades lost on the battlefields.
The tradition of planting a field of remembrance started in London in 1928 when a group of disabled veterans gathered around an original wooden cross taken from the battlefield grave of an unknown British soldier.
Passers-by watched the veterans pushing poppies into the ground, and they joined in, starting a traditional that has grown. Many of the small wooden crosses contain poignant messages from relatives, showing that even after many years, they are still remembered.
In Westminster Abbey, which is next to the Houses of Parliament, a carpet of poppies lined the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the official grave of an unknown warrior representing all those who died in battle and war.
Westminster will come to a halt Sunday when official ceremonies take place at 11 am at the national war memorial, the Cenotaph in Whitehall.
This year the time of the ceremony, marking the centenary of the end of World War One, mirrors the exact time and day when peace returned to Europe after a four year world war.
