It’s easy to get carried away with Memorial Day sales, cookouts, festivals and other fun associated with the unofficial kickoff to summer… but all of that misses the point of this solemn holiday.
Observed on the last Monday of May, Memorial Day is set aside to honor the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971.
According to history.com, the Civil War, which ended in the spring of 1865, claimed more lives than any conflict in U.S. history and required the establishment of the country’s first national cemeteries. By the late 1860s, Americans in various towns and cities had begun holding springtime tributes to these countless fallen soldiers, decorating their graves with flowers and reciting prayers.
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. “The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land,” he proclaimed.
Memorial Day, as Decoration Day gradually came to be known, originally honored only those lost while fighting in the Civil War. But during World War I, the United States was embroiled in another major conflict, and then the holiday evolved to commemorate American military personnel who died in all wars.
For decades, Memorial Day continued to be observed on May 30. 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, and Memorial Day has been a federal holiday ever since.
Many Americans observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries or memorials, holding family gatherings and participating in parades. However you spend your Memorial Day, consider joining in a national moment of remembrance that takes place at 3 p.m. local time to honor those who have died serving this country.
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