Today is the first holiday of the summer and it’s probably the most somber day on our calendars. We often read about Memorial Day Weekend being the “unofficial start of summer” and a number of activities, like the Indianapolis 500 race, are held over the Memorial Day Weekend.
But the real purpose of Memorial Day is that it’s a day set aside when Americans pause to remember the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to their country in wars at home and abroad.
On May 5, 1868, three years after the end of the Civil War, John Logan a veteran of the war and head of the Grand Army of the Republic (a Union veterans organization) established Decoration Day — to be recognized on May 30. On that date, people on both sides of the war were encouraged to place flowers on the graves of their relatives, friends or comrades who fell during the war. May 30 was chosen because flowers would be in full bloom at that time.
On May 30, 1868, the first official National Decoration Day ceremony was held at Arlington National Cemetery, where the Grand Army of the Republic placed flowers on the graves of both Union and Confederate soldiers buried there. General Ulysses S. Grant presided over the ceremony.
When I was growing up in Maysville, Oklahoma, I remember on Memorial Day almost everyone was wearing a red poppy flower — people, mostly veterans, would distribute them to everyone… most people contributed some amount of money as a donation. The idea of of using red poppies to commemorate fallen soldiers first appeared in the poem, “In Flander’s Field,” written by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae in 1915. In 1924, when faced with a shortage poppies, the first artificial poppy factory was created in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. It employed veterans who needed work. The poppies I remember as a kid were made of paper….
I mentioned that Memorial Day was formerly known as Decoration Day intended to commemorate the Union and Confederate soldiers that died in the Civil War. Originally, the northern states observed Decoration Day with a lot more enthusiasm than the Confederate states — even today, apart from the federal Memorial Day, some southern states also celebrate Confederate Memorial Day in honor of those who died fighting for the Confederate states during the Civil War. Different states observe this holiday on different days.
In 2000, Congress passed the National Moment of Remembrance Act that requests all Americans to stop what they are doing at 3:00 pm on Memorial Day to observe a minute of silence to remember and honor those who died in service to the United States.
So today is a day we pay homage to all those who didn’t come home — a day of solemn contemplation of the cost of freedom. Maybe Lee Greenwood said it best in song….”And I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free. And I won’t forget the men who died, who gave that right to me.”
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