[Nfbf-l] Memorial Day

[Patricia A. Lipovsky]

Memorial Day is celebrated every year on the final Monday of May. The
practice of celebrating it began after the Civil War. People had been in the
practice of decorating the graves of veterans before and during the Civil
War, but it was always on a very local scale. That cataclysmic event of the
Civil War, with its over 700,000 deaths, meant that burial and
memorialization to on new cultural significance. In those days, there were
memorial day-like ceremonies in both the North and the South, for their
respective fallen. Over time, the name for that day gradually changed from
Decoration Day to Memorial Day. This latter name became most common after
WWII, but was not declared official until June 28, 1968 when Congress passed
the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which placed it and three other holidays to
a specified Monday in order to create a convenient three-day holiday for
each. Memorial Day was moved from its traditional date of May 30th to the
last Monday of May.

Read more at
http://blog.theveteranssite.com/6-things-about-memorial-day/#HmpwkFzz0bxudGy
T.99 

 

Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs

http://www.va.gov/opa/speceven/memday/history.asp

 

Memorial Day History

Three years after the Civil War ended, on May 5, 1868, the head of an
organization of Union veterans - the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) -
established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves
of the war dead with flowers. Maj. Gen. John A. Logan declared that
Decoration Day should be observed on May 30. It is believed that date was
chosen because flowers would be in bloom all over the country.

The first large observance was held that year at Arlington National
Cemetery, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.

The ceremonies centered around the mourning-draped veranda of the Arlington
mansion, once the home of Gen. Robert E. Lee. Various Washington officials,
including Gen. and Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant, presided over the ceremonies.
After speeches, children from the Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphan Home and
members of the GAR made their way through the cemetery, strewing flowers on
both Union and Confederate graves, reciting prayers and singing hymns.

Local Observances Claim To Be First Local springtime tributes to the Civil
War dead already had been held in various places. One of the first occurred
in Columbus, Miss., April 25, 1866, when a group of women visited a cemetery
to decorate the graves of Confederate soldiers who had fallen in battle at
Shiloh. Nearby were the graves of Union soldiers, neglected because they
were the enemy. Disturbed at the sight of the bare graves, the women placed
some of their flowers on those graves, as well.

Today, cities in the North and the South claim to be the birthplace of
Memorial Day in 1866. Both Macon and Columbus, Ga., claim the title, as well
as Richmond, Va. The village of Boalsburg, Pa., claims it began there two
years earlier. A stone in a Carbondale, Ill., cemetery carries the statement
that the first Decoration Day ceremony took place there on April 29, 1866.
Carbondale was the wartime home of Gen. Logan. Approximately 25 places have
been named in connection with the origin of Memorial Day, many of them in
the South where most of the war dead were buried.

Official Birthplace Declared In 1966, Congress and President Lyndon Johnson
declared Waterloo, N.Y., the "birthplace" of Memorial Day. There, a ceremony
on May 5, 1866, honored local veterans who had fought in the Civil War.
Businesses closed and residents flew flags at half-staff. Supporters of
Waterloo's claim say earlier observances in other places were either
informal, not community-wide or one-time events.

By the end of the 19th century, Memorial Day ceremonies were being held on
May 30 throughout the nation. State legislatures passed proclamations
designating the day, and the Army and Navy adopted regulations for proper
observance at their facilities.

It was not until after World War I, however, that the day was expanded to
honor those who have died in all American wars. In 1971, Memorial Day was
declared a national holiday by an act of Congress, though it is still often
called Decoration Day. It was then also placed on the last Monday in May, as
were some other federal holidays.

Some States Have Confederate Observances Many Southern states also have
their own days for honoring the Confederate dead. Mississippi celebrates
Confederate Memorial Day on the last Monday of April, Alabama on the fourth
Monday of April, and Georgia on April 26. North and South Carolina observe
it on May 10, Louisiana on June 3 and Tennessee calls that date Confederate
Decoration Day. Texas celebrates Confederate Heroes Day January 19 and
Virginia calls the last Monday in May Confederate Memorial Day.

Gen. Logan's order for his posts to decorate graves in 1868 "with the
choicest flowers of springtime" urged: "We should guard their graves with
sacred vigilance. ... Let pleasant paths invite the coming and going of
reverent visitors and fond mourners. Let no neglect, no ravages of time,
testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten
as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic."

The crowd attending the first Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington National
Cemetery was approximately the same size as those that attend today's
observance, about 5,000 people. Then, as now, small American flags were
placed on each grave - a tradition followed at many national cemeteries
today. In recent years, the custom has grown in many families to decorate
the graves of all departed loved ones.

The origins of special services to honor those who die in war can be found
in antiquity. The Athenian leader Pericles offered a tribute to the fallen
heroes of the Peloponnesian War over 24 centuries ago that could be applied
today to the 1.1 million Americans who have died in the nation's wars: "Not
only are they commemorated by columns and inscriptions, but there dwells
also an unwritten memorial of them, graven not on stone but in the hearts of
men."

To ensure the sacrifices of America 's fallen heroes are never forgotten, in
December 2000, the U.S. Congress passed and the president signed into law
"The National Moment of Remembrance Act," P.L. 106-579, creating the White
House Commission on the National Moment of Remembrance. The commission's
charter is to "encourage the people of the United States to give something
back to their country, which provides them so much freedom and opportunity"
by encouraging and coordinating commemorations in the United States of
Memorial Day and the National Moment of Remembrance.

The National Moment of Remembrance encourages all Americans to pause
wherever they are at 3 p.m. local time on Memorial Day for a minute of
silence to remember and honor those who have died in service to the nation.
As Moment of Remembrance founder Carmella LaSpada states: "It's a way we can
all help put the memorial back in Memorial Day."