What's the Difference between Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday?
Armistice Day is on 11 November. A two minute silence is observed at 11am on 11th day of the 11th month because this is when the Great War, or World War 1, came to end in 1918. But now, this anniversary is used to remember all the people who've died in wars since World War 1. This includes World War 2, the Falklands War, the Gulf War, and conflicts in Bosnia, Rwanda and Kosovo.
Remembrance Sunday is the Sunday nearest to 11th November - Remembrance Day, which is the anniversary of the end of hostilities in the First World War, in 1918 at 1100hrs. The national ceremony, a unique expression of national homage, devoted primarily to remembrance of the dead of the two world wars, is held at the Cenotaph on Whitehall, London. Since 2005 the women's memorial has also been included.
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Why the Poppy?
 Scarlet poppies (popaver rhoeas) grow naturally in conditions of disturbed earth throughout Western Europe. The destruction brought by the Napoleonic wars of the early 19th Century transformed bare land into fields of blood red poppies, growing around the bodies of the fallen soldiers.
In late 1914, the fields of Northern France and Flanders were once again ripped open as the First World War raged through Europe's heart.
The significance of the poppy as a lasting memorial symbol to the fallen was realised by the Canadian surgeon John McCrae in his poem In Flanders Fields. The poppy came to represent the immeasurable sacrifice made by his comrades and quickly became a lasting memorial to those who died in the First World War and later conflicts.
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Why hold a two minute silence?
The first two minute silence in Britain was held on 11 November 1919, when King George V asked the public to observe a silence at 11am. This was one year after the end of World War 1.
He made the request so "the thoughts of everyone may be concentrated on reverent remembrance of the glorious dead".
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