Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation’s service.
According to http://www.usmemorialday.org/backgrnd.html:
- There are many stories as to its actual beginnings, with over two dozen cities and towns laying claim to being the birthplace of Memorial Day.
- There is also evidence that organized women’s groups in the South were decorating graves before the end of the Civil War.
- Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on May 5, 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, and was first observed on May 30, 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery.
- The first state to officially recognize the holiday was New York in 1873.
- By 1890 it was recognized by all of the northern states.
- The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I (when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war).
- It is now celebrated in almost every State on the last Monday in May (passed by Congress with the National Holiday Act of 1971 to ensure a three day weekend for Federal holidays).
- In 1915, Moina Michael wrote the following poem and then conceived of an idea to wear red poppies on Memorial day in honor of those who died serving the nation during war:
We cherish too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led.
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies.
- Traditional observance of Memorial Day has diminished over the years.
- Some people think the day is for honoring any and all dead, and not just those fallen in service to our country.
- To help re-educate and remind Americans of the true meaning of Memorial Day, the “National Moment of Remembrance” resolution was passed on Dec 2000 which asks that at 3 p.m. local time, for all Americans “To voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a Moment of Remembrance and respect, pausing from whatever they are doing for a moment of silence or listening to ‘Taps.’”
