The Armed Forces Remembrance and Poppy flower celebration Day commemoration ceremony was held on 16th of November 2025 at the Cenotaph War Memorial at Viharamahadevi Park in Colombo, under the patronage of Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya.
The Cenotaph War Memorial has been built in memory of war heroes from Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) who were killed in action during World War I and World War II.
It was designed by the architect Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens.
This monument is one of the oldest and most significant war memorials in Sri Lanka, and the national commemoration ceremony is held here annually on Remembrance Day (the Sunday closest to November 11).
During the event, the Prime Minister laid a wreath of poppies at the War Heroes’ Memorial and paid floral tributes in remembrance of the soldiers who sacrificed their lives.
The main purpose of this annual commemoration was to honour and remember all war heroes who have sacrificed their lives for the protection of the motherland from the period of the First World War to the present and to recognize their noble cause.
Poppy Day has been commemorated in Great Britain since 1919 to remember the members of the armed forces who died in the First World War, with the poppy becoming the main symbol of remembrance.
The poem “In Flanders Fields”, written by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae after witnessing the poppies that had grown on the graves of fallen soldiers on a battlefield in Belgium, played a significant role in establishing the poppy as an eternal symbol of remembrance.
Later, Ms. Moina Michael, who served as a secretary at the American Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA), further strengthened the significance of the poppy by initiating the sale of poppies and directing the proceeds towards the welfare of the families of war heroes.
The Poppy Day commemoration in Sri Lanka was organized in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Ex-Servicemen’s Association and the Armed Forces.
The event was attended by Deputy Minister of Defence Major General (Retired) Aruna Jayasekara, Secretary of Defence Ministry Air Vice Marshal (Retired) Sampath Thuyacontha, Tri-Forces Commanders, retired Tri-Forces Commanders, foreign diplomats, as well as the Chairman, Secretary, and a large number of members of the Sri Lanka Ex-Servicemen’s Association.
Prime Minister’s Media Division