Memorial Day
Memorial Day
Every last Monday of May (25rd - 31st) in the United States commemorates the deaths of men and women who served the country’s military forces. First established after the Civil War, the holiday has upheld its tradition of visiting cemeteries and decorating the graves of war heroes ever since. The most important symbol that day is the American flag, which adorns 147 military graveyards in the USA. Unofficially, on this day begins the summer interval, which ends with Labor Day in September. Memorial Day ought to be clearly distinguished from Veterans Day (November 11), which is a holiday in honor of all servicemen, not only the ones who have lost their lives.
The historians argue over the true origins of this holiday. Since 1860s, such early grave decorations had supposedly been held in Virginia and Georgia, pointing to the fact that Memorial Day first appeared not only during the Civil War, but also in the South. Due to the fact that it was mostly men that died during the war, their female families (mothers, wives, and daughters) are seen as creators of the tradition. Some scholars, like historian David W. Blight, claim that the custom’s formation should be attributed to African Americans from Charleston, South Carolina. Others insist that the holiday’s birthplace is Boalsburg, Pennsylvania. In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson announced that Waterloo, N.Y., is the official place of the holiday’s origin.
Regardless, the tradition used to be divided between the South and the North; Confederate Memorial Day was differentiated from the northern holiday once Union General John A. Logan established “Decoration Day” on May 5, 1868. It was then that the celebration became slightly more official in the northern states, which endorsed the holiday rapidly. Michigan was the first one to adopt Decoration day as a state holiday in 1871, and within 20 years, the rest of the North followed. They settled on a day of May 30. Meanwhile in the South, the date varied greatly. Here, memorial day was at first a very private holiday for the families to mourn their loss; with time, it had turned into a praise of the Lost Cause. At the beginning of the 20th century, the North and the South agreed on establishing a mutual holiday. In 1913, the Union and Confederate veterans reassembled in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania after fifty years in order to commemorate the greatest battle of the Civil War. November 16, 1863 was the day of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and of the local cemetery’s consecration, which is why the city celebrates its own Remembrance Day on the closest weekend to that date.
Memorial Day became an official federal holiday in 1971. Since then, the tradition evolved from simple cemetery events to full-scale memorial parades, the biggest ones held in New York, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. Many US citizens visit graveyards in order to honor their family members who served the country, and some voluntarily decorate graves with American flags. In December, 2000, Congress passed a resolution concerning the “National Moment of Remembrance”, which asks the nation to devote attention to a moment of silence for the dead.
The tradition of Memorial Day, however, is dying; although it is supposed to deal with commemoration of somber events, most people today recognize it more as the beginning of summer, the season of outdoor parties and barbecues. Memorial Day is a federal holiday, which means that the Government offices and national institutions are closed. The long weekend becomes an opportunity to reunite with family or nature.