Community Corner
Memorial Day: A Holiday of Remembrance
Honoring those who have died in war is the real reason we have today off.
Memorial Day is considered the official start to summer. It is not only the green light to wear white pants, but the mother of all camping weekends – as long as the weather cooperates. But it is important to stop and reflect on what this day truly means.
Although there are many variations of the origin of Memorial Day – as many as 25 – the official first proclamation of Decoration Day was three years after the Civil War on May 5, 1868, by Gen. John Logan, a commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, as a way to honor those who died in the Civil War. The first observance of this day was May 30, 1868, and was commemorated by the placing of flowers on the graves at Arlington National Cemetery.
Memorial Day has evolved over the last 140 years. New York was the first state to officially recognize the May 30 holiday in 1873; all northern states followed by 1890. Preferring to honor the dead on separate days, the South did not acknowledge this holiday until after World War I, when it was deemed a day to remember the fallen of any American war.
Some southern states still celebrate Confederate observances of the dead, including Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Virginia, Texas, Louisiana and the Carolinas.
It wasn’t until the National Holiday Act of 1971 that Memorial Day became part of a three-day weekend with observance on the last Monday of May. As an effort to raise awareness of the reasons behind Memorial day, President Clinton helped establish the National Moment of Remembrance asking Americans to stop for a moment of silence at 3 p.m. to “pause just for a moment, to remember those who gave their lives to protect the values that give meaning to our lives.” The law was passed in December 2000.
Tradition continues with an annual crowd gatherings at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia as The Old Guard, comprised of soldiers from the Third U.S. Infantry, place flags at thousands of graves. Cemeteries across over the nation are similarly decorated.
Facts and trivia
- President Nixon declared Memorial Day a holiday in 1971.
- Waterloo, N.Y., is considered the birthplace of Memorial Day as proclaimed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1966.
- There are four soldiers buried in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers: two from WWI, and once from both the Korean and Vietnam wars.
- The 24-note bugle call “Taps” originated in 1862.
- The customary etiquette for the holiday is to raise the flag to half-mast on Memorial Day until noon, and then raise it to the top until sunset.
- Wearing red poppies originated in 1915 as inspired by a poem by Moina Michael called, “In Flanders Fields."