Memorial Day — Did you know?

Memorial Day—Did you know?

Leading up to Memorial Day, I’ve seen some interesting articles describing how the holiday began, which prompted me to do a little research. The bottom line, of course, is that Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a federal holiday in the United States set aside to honor and mourn the military personnel who died during their service in the United States Armed Forces.

The exact origin of the holiday, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica and Wikipedia, is uncertain, but it definitely began during the Civil War when the graves of the fallen were decorated with flowers. The Britannica says that in October 1864, three women in Boalsburg, Pennsylvania, decorated the graves of loved ones who died during the Civil War and then returned in July 1865, joined by many others for a larger tribute.

On May 1, 1865, former slaves in Charleston, South Carolina honored 257 dead Union soldiers who had been buried in a mass grave in a Confederate prison camp, once a race track and jockey club. The former slaves worked for two weeks to give the men a proper burial in gratitude for their having fought for their freedom. A parade led by 3,000 black school children singing “John Brown’s Body,” followed by women carrying baskets of flowers, crosses, and wreaths, and joined by Union Infantry and other black and white citizens commenced after the burial. After the parade there were socail gatherings and picnics — not unlike our current way of honoring the dead on Memorial Day.

In 1866, women in Columbus, Mississippi, a hospital town during the war, held a formal observance for the 620,000 Union and Confederate dead by laying wreaths on whatever graves there were in the town. On May 5, 1868, General John A. Logan, leader of an organization for Northern Civil War veterans, called for a nationwide day of remembrance later that month. In 1966, by congressional proclamation, Waterloo, New York, was cited as the birthplace of Decoration Day because it hosted an annual, community-wide event, during which businesses closed and residents decorated the graves of soldiers with flowers and flags.

After World War I,  the day came to be observed to honor those who had died in all U.S. wars, and its name changed from Decoration Day to Memorial Day.  Memorial Day continued to be observed on May 30, the date General Logan had selected for the first Decoration Day. But in 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which established Memorial Day as the last Monday in May in order to create a three-day weekend for federal employees. The change went into effect in 1971. The same law also declared Memorial Day as a federal holiday.

Regardless of its origin or who benefits from the holiday, Memorial Day reminds us that men and women gave their lives, sometimes for reasons they didn’t fully understand, but more often fighting for and protecting the freedoms that we currently experience. It’s much more than just a long weekend and an excuse to have a cook-out, with a casual acknowedgement of some fallen soldiers.

A notable fact that I discovered during my inquiry is that each year on Memorial Day a national moment of remembrance takes place at 3:00 p.m. local time, wherever you are. I never really knew that, or, most of this.

Photos: Deborah Fagan Carpenter