This coming Monday, May 25th, is Memorial Day. And yes, that does mean Summer is almost here, but we shouldn't take this day as just another day off from school. Memorial Day, which was first known as Decoration Day, has been celebrated since after the Civil War. However, it was not until 1971 that Memorial Day was officially declared a federal holiday. Because of the unprecedented number of US military deaths, the country's first cemeteries were established. Many Americans began gathering in the Spring to honor the dead by doing things like saying prayers and leaving flowers and flags on their graves. Waterloo, NY, is recognized as the birthplace of Memorial Day. There, May 5th, 1866, the first Memorial Day celebrations occurred. Since then, the town annually celebrated the holiday. Businesses would close, and the whole community would come together to honor the dead. The holiday became more official two years later, when General John A. Logan, the leader of a Northern Civil War veteran organization, called for a national remembrance of those lost in the war; this day, May 30th, 1868, was known as Decoration Day. By 1980, all of the Northern States had made Decoration Day an official holiday. Although Decoration Day was originally just to honor those lost in the Civil War, once the US entered WWI, the holiday grew to pay tribute to all US soldiers who died in all wars. The Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1968 made Memorial Day a federal holiday on the last Monday of each May.
So while swimming pools and barbecues are a fun tradition associated with this holiday, it is important to set aside time to think about the real meaning of the holiday and be grateful for all the men and women who gave their lives to make our home a safer place.
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Thanks for this really meaningful post. I think this is extremely important thing to remember because most young people don't realize the struggle that others have taken to assure a good life for the next generation. Kids today need to remember and understand why their lives today are so good and why they have the freedom and safety that some take for granted.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post, Annie! Memorial Day has basically turned into a holiday to celebrate barbecues and department store sales, which is a little upsetting. It's actually a law to observe the National Moment of Remembrance, though. Back in 2000, Congress passed a law to legally require everyone to pause for a minute at 3 pm on Memorial Day to honor the fallen. Unfortunately, this isn't widely practiced, but it's still a nice sentiment.
ReplyDeleteI found some fun facts about Memorial Day and thought I'd share them here! About 37.2 million travelers will be on the road this year, which represents a 3 percent increase from 2014. That's about 10% of our country's population! Also, Memorial Day marks the start of hot-dog eating season--about 800 of them will be consumed every second starting on May 25. And the most fascinating fact of all: in Fox Point, Wisconsin, the Memorial Day Parade decreased to the point that people weren't even sure if it existed because well, it actually didn't. But then a bunch of boy scouts valiantly marched less than a mile in heavy rain towards Lake Michigan. Now that's what I call patriotism.
ReplyDeleteAfter looking online for a little while, I found that there's an annual National Memorial Day Parade in Washington D.C.! This tradition was started in 2005 by the American Veterans Center and has grown considerably since then. This year's parade will take place on Monday at 2 PM EST and is expected to be watched by 1,500,000 television viewers. Along with surviving veterans of WWII, The Smashing Pumpkins, a band, Miss America 2015, and Caleb Johnson, the winner of American Idol's 13th season, will march in the parade.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.americanveteranscenter.org/parade/