THEY are the light blue colour of the cornflowers that grew – like scarlet poppies – in the fields of northern France that became the oceans of mud and trenches where so many died during The Great War of 1914-18.
The bleuets are also the same colour as uniforms worn by conscripted soldiers in France after 1895.
The consensus seems to be that the bleuet badge was invented by two nurses at Les Invalides in Paris in 1916.
Paper versions were made by wounded soldiers as occupational therapy, with the sales providing some income, five years before a similar scheme using poppies imported from France was adopted by the Earl Haig Fund in the UK.
The commemoration was limited in France until endorsement by President Gaston Doumergue in 1928 but official government recognition for the bleuet as an Armistice Day emblem was not granted until 1935, 13 years after November 11 had been designated a public holiday.
More recently, bleuet badges have appeared on VE – Victory in Europe – Day on May 8, while some people also wear them on France’s fête nationale, July 14.
Unlike the poppy emblem in the UK, which is registered to the Royal British Legion, fewer restrictions surround the use of the bleuet. Wearing one on TV in France from late October until mid-November is not obligatory, as it seems to be in the UK. That said, the word ‘bleuet’ in capital letters, has been trademarked in the United States by cosmetics company based in Los Angeles.
While poppies will have been ‘sold’ and warn everywhere in the UK since late last month, bleuets can be hard to see. Unlike the white poppies worn in the UK by those who abhor war, the bleuet remains blue. A few badges – probably worn by veterans – start appearing after November 1, but most only emerge on Armistice Day itself, November 11.
Then, maires will lead secular commemorations beside municipal war memorials at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day while Le Président de la République will lead the national remembrance at the tomb of the unknown soldier under the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
With November 11 on a Saturday, attendance at local events may be greater this year than since before the pandemic.
Although the emotions of loyalty and survival in occupied France during the Second World War largely remain private, people will also remember those who lost their lives in both earlier and later battles as well, this year, the casualties of current violence and conflicts.
If the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 and a very different peace in the 1940s offer a lesson this year, surely it should be remembering that vengeance begets vengeance?
Bleuet badges and other mementos are available online from:
http://boutique-bleuetdefrance.fr