This weekend marks the unofficial beginning of summer. Most people will have Monday off and relax during their long weekend. Some will throw parties or cook-outs, still others will go to the beach, and some will just spend the day around the house tending to their yards and homes. But a small minority of people will celebrate Memorial Day in the traditional way- by honoring fallen heroes of our great country. I have often wondered how the holiday was started. So I decided to do a little digging, and discovered some very interesting facts about Memorial Day and its history.
Memorial Day has its roots in the years immediately following the Civil War. When the War ended in 1865, people all over the country started gathering every spring to honor their dead soldiers. Unsurprisingly, this was practiced in the North and the South. On May 30, 1868, General John A. Logan (of the North) declared that this day would be held in honor of fallen Northern veterans. Specifically, it was designated for decorating graves with flowers and anything else a person saw fit. Due to its purpose, it was named "Decoration Day." The date of May 30th was chosen because no battles were ever fought on that day, during the War. This date and tradition continued to be practiced in the North. As a result, most Northern states had declared it a state holiday by 1890. Southern states saw fit to continue honoring soldiers on the day each community saw fit.
Decoration Day continued to be celebrated every year by all states involved in the Civil War up until World War I. Until then, it was exclusively a holiday to honor soldiers from the war between the North and the South. But as World War I shook the world, and more boys were sent home under flags, America saw the need to expand the holiday to honor all of its fallen heroes.
Eventually, "Decoration Day" changed to "Memorial Day," and it continued to be celebrated on May 30th all over the country. However, in 1968, Congress passed a law that changed the date of the holiday to the last Monday in May. This was done so that a long weekend would be established for federal employees. Eventually, this law was adopted and passed in 1971, making Memorial Day a federally recognized holiday.
Memorial Day started as a sombre reminder of a mistake that led to thousands of deaths of sons, fathers, brothers, husbands, friends, and sweethearts. But eventually, it was "diluted" to a time for summer celebration. I am not condemning a party or a vacation or even relaxing- we all need that sometimes. But this Memorial Day, take some time to reflect on the many men and women who sacrificed everything they had in the Revolutionary War, the families left broken from the Civil War, the heartache of WWI, the overwhelming sense of loss of WWII, those left scarred from Korea, and the men and women still dying from Vietnam. Remember the men and women in every armed struggle this country has faced who paid the ultimate sacrifice. And most of all, remember the heroes of our own time who will never come home to their families. Remember the Heroes- for they make us who we are.
