Yellow Ribbon Support Our Troops (history)

Family Tradition

Background

Did you ever wonder where the Yellow Ribbon Support Tradition came from? Many think it came from the 1973 Tony Orlando and Dawn all-time classic: “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree.”

Actually it came from the Classic 1949 Movie with John Wayne " She Wore A Yellow Ribbon " directed by John Ford that stars John Wayne  in which the female lead Wore the yellow ribbon to express her undying love for a cavalry officer. The Cavalry uniform pants had a yellow stripe down the pants; thus the yellow ribbon.

Show you support the troops by displaying a ribbon!

Usage

The Yellow ribbon has many causes that use of a yellow ribbon represents. One of the oldest is teenage suicide prevention, the Canadian Cancer Society, and a common uses to demonstrate some form of hope. Often tied around a tree near a place of a loss or tragedy. Yellow ribbons have been used for the hope of finding a lost child or as a marker were loved ones lost their lives has become common place.

Lately, the yellow ribbon has taken a new face since the war on terrorism was declared by the United States after the infamous 9/11 attacks.  First seen in the US because of the history of the yellow ribbons by military families, the yellow ribbon has nearly exploded into a international fashion accessory demonstrating support for active military personal. Canada adopted the yellow ribbon shortly after the presence of the yellow ribbon started in the US. The CFPSA first marketed the Yellow Ribbon by adding a Canadian Flag to the yellow ribbon in forms of pins, decals and other forms of products.

Shortly after the Yellow Ribbon caught on, other stories and ideas of demonstrating support came about. One of them is wearing Red on Fridays. The exact origin of this is believed to be in the US but is not verified. After the trendy fashion of wearing RED began to sweep the nation, two Canadian wives of the military had a large rally in the Capital of Canada - Ottawa.  The Red Friday trend was adopted by Red Fridays Foundation of Canada and made into a worthy cause to raise funds to support our troops in many ways. As a result, a new ribbon was developed that shows the Canadian support of their troops as a Canadian Flag / Maple Leaf.

The wearing of a ribbon has a long history of supporting special causes. As one very historical record was the Dutch in WWII. As Jewish people had to wear a yellow star on their clothing identifying themselves as Jewish people, the Dutch citizens in despite of the Nazi rule all started to wear yellow over their left chest. This would be yellow ribbons to yellow tulips.  This was organized spontaneously to confuse the Nazi policing of the Jewish people and a demonstration against the racism of the Nazi Army.

Wearing a ribbon obviously with out a doubt is worn to demonstrate support of some kind or another. Common ones are well known such as pink ribbons for breast cancer and red for aids. Being that the common market place has made many types of ribbons to show support of the troops, the individual wearer has a choice of ribbons to wear. Red Fridays Canada has supplied such a special ribbon to show their Canadian colours. Red Fridays ribbon does not claim to be the only support ribbon for Canada but does suggest the ribbon unmistakably demonstrates your support for the Canadian troops.

Red Fridays RIBBON: Our ribbon is elegant and unique from Red Fridays Foundation of Canada. Our design was to identify Canada and the ribbon for support of our troops. We are not suggesting the yellow ribbons are not supported and still encourage the yellow ribbon symbolic meaning. We also carry a Yellow Ribbon on our products page.  Red Fridays Foundation of Canada designed a ribbon that is uniquely Canadian. From a distance, our  ribbon can be identified as Canadian without any doubt to where your support message goes. The 3 maple leafs on the ribbon represent "Faith" (which our military restores to people in their fight for freedom in their missions) "Hope" (which our military gives to people in their missions of peace here and at home) and lastly "Charity" (which the Canadian Military has shown for over 100 years to give help to those in need).  Be sure to get yourself a ribbon and wear them proudly every Friday!  Check our products page for many ways to wear the RED ON FRIDAYS and show your support.

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