The Civil War was the largest conflict ever fought on American soil and resulted in the establishment of the first national cemeteries. In 1862 General John Logan, representative of a veteran’s organization, called for the establishment of May 30 as a day “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.”1
Over time Decoration Day became known as Memorial Day instead, and expanded to include first the fatalities of other wars and then friends and relatives who had not died in military service. Moina Michael suggested the wearing of red poppies on Memorial Day in honor of WWI casualties in 1915, and the VFW began selling artificial “remembrance” poppies shortly before Memorial Day in 1922.
Memorial Day became an official federal holiday celebrated on the last Monday in May in 1971 as a result of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. The “National Moment of Remembrance Act,” passed in December of 2000, asks that all Americans at 3:00 pm local time on Memorial Day “voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a Moment of remembrance and respect, pausing from whatever they are doing for a moment of silence or listening to ‘Taps.’”2
Today Memorial Day is considered to be the start of summer, and is celebrated with picnics and parades. Join us at noon on Monday, May 25, to honor both traditions with the first of our summer cookouts, and with a short blessing to celebrate the completion of our courtyard cross with bricks commemorating those we remember with love.
Monday, May 25, 2015, Noon
Memorial Day Cookout and Courtyard Blessing
1 Quoted by History.com at http://www.history.com/topics/holidays/memorial-day-history
2 Quoted by US Memorial Day at http://www.usmemorialday.org/?page_id=2
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