Memorial Day is intended to be a day to remember the ultimate sacrifices by our military, to remember those who accepted death while battling much larger matters than power bills, quirky cell phones or cholesterol. It did not start out as simply as you might believe.
The holiday began from a variety of local remembrances during the three years just after the American Civil War. The holiday was initially known as Decoration Day, because people decorated the graves of soldiers (with flowers, flags and other things, perhaps), as we traditionally still do today. The holiday we celebrate is rooted in a memorial of war dead from both sides of the Civil War, first held in 1868. According to the site USMemorialDay.org, the North had their day in May. The South, not wanting to recognize their lost soldiers on the same day that the Union recognized them, had separate days of remembrance. The holiday didn't begin to take the form we know today until after the ending of another massive and deadly conflict.
It was after World War I that Memorial Day became a holiday for remembering all of our fallen military men and women, not just those from the Civil War; gradually, all the states accepted the same holiday for that purpose. You might be surprised to learn, unless your ancestors were in the War Between the States, that there is still a Confederate Memorial Day remembrance, on differing days, in Southern states. Perhaps as surprising, Memorial Day did not become an official federal holiday (that is, truly national, recognized by Congress, all that) until 1971.
On Memorial Day, the sacrifice is the reason. Memorial Day is not for cheering for war and conflict. There is no holiday to celebrate conflict. It is what it is named: a memorial day. It exists to remember those who did not survive their service, in war or in other military actions.
Give gratitude, and an earnest toast, to those who have been lost trying to keep your world safe for your leisure, by, paradoxically, keeping watch, taking generally thankless risks, and handling the madness of war.
God Bless America: land of the free because of the brave.
- Jon O
The holiday began from a variety of local remembrances during the three years just after the American Civil War. The holiday was initially known as Decoration Day, because people decorated the graves of soldiers (with flowers, flags and other things, perhaps), as we traditionally still do today. The holiday we celebrate is rooted in a memorial of war dead from both sides of the Civil War, first held in 1868. According to the site USMemorialDay.org, the North had their day in May. The South, not wanting to recognize their lost soldiers on the same day that the Union recognized them, had separate days of remembrance. The holiday didn't begin to take the form we know today until after the ending of another massive and deadly conflict.
It was after World War I that Memorial Day became a holiday for remembering all of our fallen military men and women, not just those from the Civil War; gradually, all the states accepted the same holiday for that purpose. You might be surprised to learn, unless your ancestors were in the War Between the States, that there is still a Confederate Memorial Day remembrance, on differing days, in Southern states. Perhaps as surprising, Memorial Day did not become an official federal holiday (that is, truly national, recognized by Congress, all that) until 1971.
On Memorial Day, the sacrifice is the reason. Memorial Day is not for cheering for war and conflict. There is no holiday to celebrate conflict. It is what it is named: a memorial day. It exists to remember those who did not survive their service, in war or in other military actions.
Give gratitude, and an earnest toast, to those who have been lost trying to keep your world safe for your leisure, by, paradoxically, keeping watch, taking generally thankless risks, and handling the madness of war.
God Bless America: land of the free because of the brave.
- Jon O
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