I am getting a strange feeling that poeple are looking at me in confused manner, my partner brought me Poppy to wear at the weekend in commeration of Remembrance Day, but I getting many strange looks from passers by and at work? one person told me that they don`t commerate it here. Why and so what if I do?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remembrance_Day

Just wear it. Funny looks aren't going to kill you, are they?

No its just nice to smile back and but explaining why eachtime is the confusing bit, I would have though that those people are aware why?

No reason why they should, any more than an Australian or a Brit should be aware of the reason why Swiss people listen to loud Guggi music at 11.00 on November 11th each year.

Different culture, different ways. Do your thing, let them do theirs, and we'll all be happy.

(The poppy's great for spotting fellow Anglos on the train, by the way... )

Unless they're French Canadian. But they'd be wearing the nicer (3-d) Canadian poppy so you'd probably notice.

Associate Anglos... We can forgive their Frenchness for all the service they have given to Her Maj.

Good lads, even if they did invent poutine.

I bought a few spare ones for my firends, one of whom was a Canadian (non French Canadian).
Another friend who is Amercian says they wear a black poppy but only of the 11th of November for Veteran's Day (not days leading up to it).
But I haven't seen any.....yet.
Are they also available somewhere in Switzerland?

HB Chan you explain the(3-d) to me , please

On Thursday I was spotted in Zurich by an English girl, who told me her fiancé is over in Afghanistan. She said it was nice to see my poppy, which in turn made me feel good.
I asked her where hers was and she had a small metal badge on her lapel instead as she kept losing hers. I thought that was cheating as she can reuse it next year ;-)

That's a really good idea. The paper ones go all tatty as soon as you've taken your coat off a few times. You can still donate every year even with a reusable one.

Well, I guess the Swiss don't wear the poppy because they did not fight...

Can't imagine why you should get (dirty) looks because of that, but then I haven't really master the art of spotting starers yet either...

In my area, wearing a "gummel" would be more appropriate in remembrance of those times.

Where did you get the poppy?

Orell Fuessli or any Anglican church (St Andrew's in Zurich, for example) should have them.

My partner picked it up from the UN in Geneva

Well I guess you can commemorate it if you feel like it, but thanks for showing me what that poppy thing was!

As stated in several posts above, Remembrance Day (Veterans' Day in the USA) is unknown in Switzerland.

However, some Swiss may stare at poppy bearers even more because they may think those people are promoting opium. After all, there also are those folks that sport a hemp leaf pennant on their backpack, and that definitely not because they prefer hemp ropes for moutain climbing. Just a thought.

Isn't the poppy from which opium is extracted the blue one?

Its the red colour. That always attracts attention. And so what if you do, exactly. I couldn't care less

That's a good observation Sada. Last week a colleague told me he noticed that everyone here in Zurich seems to wear black. So a red poppy would stand out like the little girl wearing a red coat in the black and white movie Schindler's List.