Memorial Day

We take a lot of holidays for granted. This results so often in missing out on the real purpose of days to memorialize. April, 2010, for example, had April Fools Day, Good Friday and Easter, Army Day, Income Tax Day (hardly a holiday), Administrative Professionals Day, Earth Day, Arbor Day and National Former POW Recognition Day.

May recognizes Law Day, Loyalty Day, National Day of Prayer (under attack), Military Spouses Day, V-E Day, Mother's Day, Police Officers Memorial Day, Armed Forces Day, National Maritime Day and Memorial Day. How many of these do we commemorate or understand fully?
May is a month of remembrance from Mothers to the Military to Prayer and Law. And more. Naturally, those interested in law, the military, mothers and prayer remember those days because of personal interest. At times these interests are quite territorial rather than nationalistic. Let's take another peek at Memorial Day.

Many territories claimed the honor of being the first Memorial Day, a day of remembering those who died in the military service following the Civil War. Many songs and poetry commemorated the war on both sides which gave momentum to the decoration of graves of the fallen. Therefore, Memorial Day was earlier known as Decoration Day. This day struggled for awhile until it became both official and comprehensive.

Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic and was first observed on 30 May 1868 when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. The first state to officially recognize the holiday was New York in 1873.

By 1890 it was recognized by all of the northern states. The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I (when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war). It is now celebrated on the last Monday in May recognizing all who died.

John McCrae penned

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields . . .

That inspired Moina Michael in 1915 to write

We cherish too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led,
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never die which led to a Buddy Poppy program.

The celebration of Memorial Day regrettably has diminished over the years but you in your small corner and I in mine can help rekindle our recognition of those who have lived and died but not in vain.