Today we celebrate Memorial Day, a day in which we remember and honor all our servicemen and women who lost their lives on various battlefields. Memorial Day began as “Decoration Day” having come about during the Civil War. People went around placing flowers on the graves of those who had died fighting. The war ended in the spring of 1865, claiming more lives than any conflict in American history. The end of the war also saw the establishment of the country’s first national cemeteries. Three years later, Decoration Day was formally established on May 5, 1868 by the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Union veterans. On that first Decoration Day in 1868, Gen. James Garfield gave a speech at Arlington National Cemetery.
On May 30, 1873, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant led the observance with a crowd of about 5,000 people who later decorated the graves of the roughly 20,000 Civil War soldiers. Children who were orphaned placed small American flags and flowers on top of both Confederate and Union soldier’s graves.
It was not until after World War I, for all American soldiers who had died in wars, to be remembered. The name was then changed from Decoration Day to Memorial Day and was observed on May 30 for many decades.
In 1968, Congress passed the “Uniform Monday Holiday Act”, thereby changing Memorial Day to the last Monday in May and making it a federal holiday. This was to create a three-day weekend for federal employees and went into effect in 1971.
Memorial Day observance consists of laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, along with various parades, speeches and religious services throughout the country.
Memorial Day and Veterans Day (November 11) honor the sacrifices made by United States veterans.
But it is on Memorial Day we somberly honor and remember all those who died.
Give peace a chance. John Lennon, 1969