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Memorial Day

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This article is about a holiday in The United States. For other uses, see Memorial Day (disambiguation).
Memorial Day
The gravestones at Arlington National Cemetery are decorated by U.S. flags on Memorial Day weekend.
TypeNational
ObservancesRemembrance of American war dead
DateLast Monday in May
2023 dateMay 29  (2023-05-29)
2024 dateMay 27  (2024-05-27)
2025 dateMay 26  (2025-05-26)
2026 dateMay 25  (2026-05-25)

Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday which occurs every year on the final Monday of May.[1] Memorial Day is a day of remembering the men and women who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces.[2] Formerly known as Decoration Day, it originated during the American Civil War by General John A. Logan, leader of an organization for Northern Civil War veterans to commemorate the soldiers who died in the Civil War. (Source: http://www.history.com/topics/memorial-day-history ) By the 20th century, Memorial Day had been extended to honor all Americans who have died while in the military service.[3] It typically marks the start of the summer vacation season, while Labor Day marks its end.

Many people visit cemeteries and memorials, particularly to honor those who have died in military service. Many volunteers place an American flag on each grave in national cemeteries.

Annual Decoration Days for particular cemeteries are held on a Sunday in late spring or early summer in some rural areas of the American South, notably in the mountains. In cases involving a family graveyard where remote ancestors as well as those who were deceased more recently are buried, this may take on the character of an extended family reunion to which some people travel hundreds of miles. People gather on the designated day and put flowers on graves and renew contacts with kinfolk and others. There often is a religious service and a "dinner on the ground," the traditional term for a potluck meal in which people used to spread the dishes out on sheets or tablecloths on the grass. It is believed that this practice began before the American Civil War and thus may reflect the real origin of the "memorial day" idea.[4]

Memorial Day is not to be confused with Veterans Day; Memorial Day is a day of remembering the men and women who died while serving, while Veterans Day celebrates the service of all U.S. military veterans.[5]


Civil War Veterans in Ortonville, Minnesota on the Fourth of July, 1880 - also called "Decoration Day" prior to the Uniform Monday Holiday Act almost a century later.

The practice of decorating soldiers' graves with flowers is an ancient custom.[6] Soldiers' graves were decorated in the U.S. before[7] and during the American Civil War. A claim was made in 1906 that the first Civil War soldier's grave ever decorated was in Warrenton, Virginia on June 3, 1861, implying the first Memorial Day occurred there.[8] There is authentic documentation that women in Savannah, Georgia decorated soldiers' graves in 1862.[9] In 1863, the cemetery dedication at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania was a ceremony of commemoration at the graves of dead soldiers. Local historians in Boalsburg, PA, claim that ladies there decorated soldiers' graves on July 4, 1864.[10] As a result, Boalsburg promotes itself as the birthplace of Memorial Day.[11]

Following President Abraham Lincoln's assassination in April 1865, there were a variety of events of commemoration. The first well-known observance of a Memorial Day-type observance after the Civil War was in Charleston, South Carolina on May 1, 1865. During the war, Union soldiers who were prisoners of war had been held at the Charleston Race Course; at least 257 Union prisoners died there and were hastily buried in unmarked graves.[12] Together with teachers and missionaries, black residents of Charleston organized a May Day ceremony in 1865, which was covered by the New York Tribune and other national papers. The freedmen cleaned up and landscaped the burial ground, building an enclosure and an arch labeled, "Martyrs of the Race Course." Nearly ten thousand people, mostly freedmen, gathered on May 1 to commemorate the war dead. Involved were about 3,000 school children newly enrolled in freedmen's schools, mutual aid societies, Union troops, black ministers, and white northern missionaries. Most brought flowers to lay on the burial field. Today the site is used as Hampton Park.[13] Years later, the celebration would come to be called the "First Decoration Day" in the North.

David W. Blight described the day:

"This was the first Memorial Day. African Americans invented Memorial Day in Charleston, South Carolina. What you have there is black Americans recently freed from slavery announcing to the world with their flowers, their feet, and their songs what the war had been about. What they basically were creating was the Independence Day of a Second American Revolution.”[14]

However, Blight stated he "has no evidence" that this event in Charleston inspired the establishment of Memorial Day across the country.[15]

The sheer number of soldiers of both sides who died in the Civil War, more than 600,000, meant that burial and memorialization took on new cultural significance. Under the leadership of women during the war, an increasingly formal practice of decorating graves had taken shape. In 1865, the federal government began creating national military cemeteries for the Union war dead.[16]

On May 26, 1966 President Johnson signed a presidential proclamation naming Waterloo, New York as the birthplace of Memorial Day. Earlier, the 89th Congress adopted House Concurrent Resolution 587, which officially recognized that the patriotic tradition of observing Memorial Day began one hundred years prior in Waterloo, New York. [17] In the summer of 1865 a local druggist Henry Welles, while talking to friends, suggested that it might be good to remember those soldiers who did not make it home from the Civil War.[citation needed] Not much came of it until he mentioned it to General John B. Murray, a Civil War hero, who gathered support from other surviving veterans. On May 5, 1866 they marched to the three local cemeteries and decorated the graves of fallen soldiers.[citation needed] Waterloo still celebrates Memorial Day on May 30.[citation needed]

In the North

The Tomb of the Unknowns located in Arlington National Cemetery

On May 5, 1868, in his capacity as commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, the veterans' organization for Union Civil War veterans, General John A. Logan issued a proclamation calling for "Decoration Day" to be observed annually and nationwide.[18] It was observed for the first time that year on May 30; the date was chosen because it was not the anniversary of any particular battle.[19] According to the White House, the May 30 date was chosen as the optimal date for flowers to be in bloom.[20]

Memorial Day, Boston by Henry Sandham

Memorial events were held in 183 cemeteries in 27 states in 1868, and 336 in 1869.[citation needed] The northern states quickly adopted the holiday. Michigan made "Decoration Day" an official state holiday in 1871 and by 1890, every northern state had followed suit. The ceremonies were sponsored by the Women's Relief Corps, the women's auxiliary of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), which had 100,000 members. By 1870, the remains of nearly 300,000 Union dead had been reinterred in 73 national cemeteries, located near major battlefields and thus mainly in the South. The most famous are Gettysburg National Cemetery in Pennsylvania and Arlington National Cemetery, near Washington.[citation needed]

Memorial Day speeches became an occasion for veterans, politicians and ministers to commemorate the War, and at first to rehash the "atrocities" of the enemy. They mixed religion and celebratory nationalism and provided a means for the people to make sense of their history in terms of sacrifice for a better nation. People of all religious beliefs joined together, and the point was often made that the German and Irish soldiers had become true Americans in the "baptism of blood" on the battlefield.[citation needed] By the end of the 1870s, much of the war time rancor was gone, and the speeches usually praised the brave soldiers, both Blue and Gray.[citation needed] By the 1950s, the theme was American exceptionalism and duty to uphold freedom in the world.[citation needed]

Ironton, Ohio, lays claim to the nation's oldest continuously running Memorial Day parade. Its first parade was held May 5, 1868, and the town has held it every year since. However, the Memorial Day parade in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, predates Ironton's by one year.[21]

In the South

Confederate Memorial Monument in Montgomery, Alabama

Evidence exists that shows General Logan had adopted for the North an annual Confederate Memorial Day custom that had been in practice in the South since 1866, though observances in Waterloo, New York occurred in the same year and in Boalsburg, Pennsylvania two years prior.[22][23] The U.S. National Park Service attributes the beginning to the ladies of Columbus, Georgia.[24] The separate tradition of Memorial Day observance which had emerged earlier in the South was linked to the Lost Cause and served as the prototype for the national day of memory.[24][25] Historians acknowledge the Ladies Memorial Association played a key role in its development.[26] Various dates ranging from April 25 to mid-June were adopted in different Southern states. Across the South, associations were founded, many by women, to establish and care for permanent cemeteries for the Confederate dead, organize commemorative ceremonies, and sponsor appropriate monuments as a permanent way of remembering the Confederate cause and sacrifice. The most important was the United Daughters of the Confederacy, which grew from 17,000 members in 1900 to nearly 100,000 women by World War I. They were "strikingly successful at raising money to build Confederate monuments, lobbying legislatures and Congress for the reburial of Confederate dead, and working to shape the content of history textbooks."[27]

On April 25, 1866, women in Columbus, Mississippi laid flowers on the graves of both the Union and Confederate dead in the city's cemetery.[28] The early Confederate Memorial Day celebrations were simple, somber occasions for veterans and their families to honor the dead and tend to local cemeteries. By 1890, there was a shift from the emphasis on honoring specific soldiers to a public commemoration of the lost Confederate cause.[29] Changes in the ceremony's hymns and speeches reflect an evolution of the ritual into a symbol of cultural renewal and conservatism in the South. By 1913, Blight argues, the theme of American nationalism shared equal time with the Lost Cause.[30]

At Gettysburg

Soldiers National Monument at the center of Gettysburg National Cemetery.

The ceremonies and Memorial Day address at Gettysburg National Park became nationally well known, starting in 1868. In July 1913, veterans of the United States and Confederate armies gathered in Gettysburg to commemorate the fifty-year anniversary of the Civil War's bloodiest and most famous battle.[31]

The four-day "Blue-Gray Reunion" featured parades, re-enactments, and speeches from a host of dignitaries, including President Woodrow Wilson, the first Southerner elected to the White House after the War. James Heflin of Alabama gave the main address. Heflin was a noted orator; two of his best-known speeches were an endorsement of the Lincoln Memorial and his call to make Mother's Day a holiday. His choice as Memorial Day speaker was criticized, as he was opposed for his support of segregation. However, his speech was moderate in tone and stressed national unity and goodwill, gaining him praise from newspapers.

Since the cemetery dedication at Gettysburg occurred on November 19, that day (or the closest weekend) has been designated as their own local memorial day that is referred to as Remembrance Day.[32]

Name and date

"On Decoration Day" Political cartoon c 1900. Caption: "You bet I'm goin' to be a soldier, too, like my Uncle David, when I grow up."

The preferred name for the holiday gradually changed from "Decoration Day" to "Memorial Day", which was first used in 1882.[33] It did not become more common until after World War II, and was not declared the official name by Federal law until 1967.[34] On June 28, 1968, the Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which moved four holidays, including Memorial Day, from their traditional dates to a specified Monday in order to create a convenient three-day weekend.[35] The change moved Memorial Day from its traditional May 30 date to the last Monday in May. The law took effect at the federal level in 1971.[35] After some initial confusion and unwillingness to comply, all 50 states adopted Congress' change of date within a few years.

Memorial Day endures as a holiday which most businesses observe because it marks the unofficial beginning of summer. The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW) advocate returning to the original date, although the significance of the date is tenuous. The VFW stated in a 2002 Memorial Day Address:

Changing the date merely to create three-day weekends has undermined the very meaning of the day. No doubt, this has contributed a lot to the general public's nonchalant observance of Memorial Day.[36]

Starting in 1987 Hawaii's Senator Daniel Inouye, a World War II veteran, introduced a measure to return Memorial Day to its traditional date. Inouye continued introducing the resolution until his death in 2012.[37]

Traditional observance

On Memorial Day the flag of the United States is raised briskly to the top of the staff and then solemnly lowered to the half-staff position, where it remains only until noon.[38] It is then raised to full-staff for the remainder of the day.[39]

Memorial Day observances in small New England towns are often marked by dedications and remarks by veterans, state legislators and selectmen

The half-staff position remembers the more than one million men and women who gave their lives in service of their country. At noon their memory is raised by the living, who resolve not to let their sacrifice be in vain, but to rise up in their stead and continue the fight for liberty and justice for all.

The National Memorial Day Concert takes place on the west lawn of the United States Capitol.[40] The concert is broadcast on PBS and NPR. Music is performed, and respect is paid to the men and women who gave their lives for their country.

For many Americans, the central event is attending one of the thousands of parades held on Memorial Day in large and small cities all over the country. Most of these feature marching bands and an overall military theme with the National Guard and other servicemen participating along with veterans and military vehicles from various wars.

One of the longest-standing traditions is the running of the Indianapolis 500, an auto race which has been held in conjunction with Memorial Day since 1911.[41] It runs on the Sunday preceding the Memorial Day holiday. The Coca-Cola 600 stock car race has been held later the same day since 1961. The Memorial Tournament golf event has been held on or close to the Memorial Day weekend since 1976.


Interpretations

Scholars,[42][43][44][45] following the lead of sociologist Robert Bellah, often make the argument that the United States has a secular "civil religion" - one with no association with any religious denomination or viewpoint - that has incorporated Memorial Day as a sacred event. With the Civil War, a new theme of death, sacrifice and rebirth enters the civil religion. Memorial Day gave ritual expression to these themes, integrating the local community into a sense of nationalism. The American civil religion, in contrast to that of France, was never anticlerical or militantly secular; in contrast to Britain, it was not tied to a specific denomination, such as the Church of England. The Americans borrowed from different religious traditions so that the average American saw no conflict between the two, and deep levels of personal motivation were aligned with attaining national goals.[46]

In literature and music

Charles Ives's symphonic poem Decoration Day depicted the holiday as he experienced it in his childhood, with his father's band leading the way to the town cemetery, the playing of "Taps" on a trumpet, and a livelier march tune on the way back to the town. It is frequently played with three other Ives works based on holidays as the second movement of A New England Holidays Symphony.

There is also a 2012 film, Memorial Day, starring James Cromwell, Jonathan Bennett and John Cromwell.

See also

References

  1. ^ 36 U.S.C. § 116
  2. ^ "Memorial Day". United States Department of Veterans Affairs. Retrieved 2010-05-28.
  3. ^ Ibid.
  4. ^ See Jabbour and Jabbour (2010).
  5. ^ http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/parenting/homefront/bal-memorial-day-vs-veterans-day-20120528,0,1402423.story
  6. ^ The Ladies Garland, p. 296
  7. ^ In 1817, for example, a writer in the Analectic Magazine of Philadelphia urged the decoration of patriot’s graves. E.J., “The Soldier’s Grave,” in The Analectic Magazine (1817), Vol. 10, 264.
  8. ^ Times-Dispatch, 1906
  9. ^ ""A Beautiful Tribute," Savannah Republican, July 21, 1862". .uttyler.edu. Retrieved 2012-05-28.
  10. ^ "Sophie Keller Hall, in The Story of Our Regiment: A History of the 148th Pennsylvania Vols., ed. J. W. Muffly (Des Moines: The Kenyon Printing & Mfg. Co., 1904), quoted in editor's note, p. 45". Civilwarcenter.olemiss.edu. Retrieved 2012-05-28.
  11. ^ "Boalsburg.com". Boalsburg.com. 1997-03-26. Retrieved 2012-05-28.
  12. ^ Blight, David W. Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory (2001), ch. 3, "Decoration Days", pp. 67-70
  13. ^ Blight, David W. Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory (2001, 2nd printing), ch. 3, "Decoration Days", pp. 67-70
  14. ^ Blight, David W., Lecture: "To Appomattox and Beyond,"
  15. ^ David Blight, cited by Campbell Robertson, "Birthplace of Memorial Day," New York Times, May 28, 2012 - Link is first of two web pages - Blight quote from 2nd web page: "He has called that the first Memorial Day, as it predated most of the other contenders, though he said he has no evidence that it led to General Logan’s call for a national holiday."
  16. ^ Joan Waugh; Gary W. Gallagher (1 June 2009). Wars Within a War: Controversy and Conflict Over the American Civil War. Univ of North Carolina Press. p. 187. ISBN 978-0-8078-3275-2.
  17. ^ Johnson, Lyndon. "Presidential Proclamation 3727". Retrieved 27 May 2013.
  18. ^ Alan Jabbour; Karen Singer Jabbour (31 May 2010). Decoration Day in the Mountains: Traditions of Cemetery Decoration in the Southern Appalachians. Univ of North Carolina Press. p. 125. ISBN 978-0-8078-3397-1. Retrieved 28 May 2012.
  19. ^ Hennig Cohen; Tristram Potter Coffin (1991). The Folklore of American holidays. Gale Research. p. 215.
  20. ^ Barack Obama, Weekly Address, May 29, 2010, transcript
  21. ^ "Doylestown Hosts Oldest Memorial Day Parade in the Country". CBS News. 29 May 2011.
  22. ^ Mrs. Logan's Memoirs, p. 246
  23. ^ New York Times, May 27, 2012
  24. ^ a b National Park Service, "Flowers For Jennie" Retrieved June 1, 2012
  25. ^ Lucian Lamar Knight, "Memorial Day: Its True History". Books.google.com. Retrieved 2012-05-28.
  26. ^ {{cite book|author=Karen L. Cox|title=Dixie's Daughters: The United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Preservation of Confederate Culture|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=U_jpxKJDleQC&pg=PA11%7Cyear=2003%7Cpublisher=Universbuttse Memorial Day]].
  27. ^ Blight (2001), Race and Reunion, pp. 272-273
  28. ^ "Did You Know? Little known Mississippi Facts". US Genealogy Network. Retrieved 2010-05-28.
  29. ^ University of Michigan; EBSCO Publishing (Firm) (2000). America, history and life. Clio Press. p. 190.
  30. ^ David W. Blight (2001). Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory. Harvard U.P. p. 265.
  31. ^ Warren Leon; Roy Rosenzweig (1 June 1989). History Museums in the United States: A Critical Assessment. University of Illinois Press. p. 140. ISBN 978-0-252-06064-9.
  32. ^ Glenn W. LaFantasie (1 March 2008). Gettysburg Heroes: Perfect Soldiers, Hallowed Ground. Indiana University Press. p. 46. ISBN 978-0-253-35071-8.
  33. ^ Henry Perkins Goddard; Calvin Goddard Zon (2008). The Good Fight That Didn't End: Henry P. Goddard's Accounts of Civil War and Peace. Univ of South Carolina Press. p. 285. ISBN 978-1-57003-772-6.
  34. ^ Alan Axelrod (1 June 2007). Miracle at Belleau Wood: The Birth of the Modern U.S. Marine Corps. Globe Pequot. p. 233. ISBN 978-1-59921-025-4.
  35. ^ a b Public Law 90-363
  36. ^ Mechant, David (April 28, 2007). "Memorial Day History". Retrieved 2010-05-28.
  37. ^ E.g., 112th Congress (2011-2012), S.70
  38. ^ Peggy Post; Anna Post; Lizzie Post (15 November 2011). Emily Post's Etiquette, 18. HarperCollins. p. 165. ISBN 978-0-06-210127-3. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  39. ^ Congress (22 October 2009). United States Code, 2006, Supplement 1, January 4, 2007 to January 8, 2008. Government Printing Office. p. 39. ISBN 978-0-16-083512-4.
  40. ^ Kevin J. Carnahan (1 May 2004). Outdoor Escapes Washington, D.C.: A Four-Season Guide. Globe Pequot. p. 167. ISBN 978-0-7627-3056-8.
  41. ^ Alan Wilson (1 October 2011). Driven by Desire: The Desire Wilson Story. Veloce Publishing Ltd. p. 92. ISBN 978-1-84584-389-2.
  42. ^ William H. Swatos; Peter Kivisto (1998). Encyclopedia of Religion and Society. Rowman Altamira. pp. 49–50.
  43. ^ Marcela Cristi (2001). From Civil to Political Religion: The Intersection of Culture, Religion and Politics. Wilfrid Laurier U.P. pp. 48–53.
  44. ^ William M. Epstein (2002). American Policy Making: Welfare As Ritual. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 99.
  45. ^ Corwin E. Smidt; Lyman A. Kellstedt; James L. Guth (2009). The Oxford Handbook of Religion and American Politics. Oxford Handbooks Online. pp. 142–3.
  46. ^ Robert N. Bellah, "Civil Religion in America", Daedalus 1967 96(1): 1–21.

Further reading

  • Albanese, Catherine. "Requiem for Memorial Day: Dissent in the Redeemer Nation", American Quarterly, Vol. 26, No. 4 (Oct., 1974), pp. 386–398 in JSTOR
  • Bellah, Robert N. "Civil Religion in America". Daedalus 1967 96(1): 1–21. online edition
  • Blight, David W. "Decoration Day: The Origins of Memorial Day in North and South" in Alice Fahs and Joan Waugh, eds. The Memory of the Civil War in American Culture (2004), online edition pp 94–129; the standard scholarly history
  • Blight, David W. Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory (2000) ch. 3, "Decorations" excerpt and text search
  • Buck, Paul H. The Road to Reunion, 1865–1900 (1937)
  • Cherry, Conrad. "Two American Sacred Ceremonies: Their Implications for the Study of Religion in America", American Quarterly, Vol. 21, No. 4 (Winter, 1969), pp. 739–754 in JSTOR
  • Dennis, Matthew. Red, White, and Blue Letter Days: An American Calendar (2002)
  • Jabbour, Alan, and Karen Singer Jabbour. Decoration Day in the Mountains: Traditions of Cemetery Decoration in the Southern Appalachians (University of North Carolina Press; 2010)
  • Myers, Robert J. "Memorial Day". Chapter 24 in Celebrations: The Complete Book of American Holidays. (1972)
  • Robert Haven Schauffler (1911). Memorial Day: Its Celebration, Spirit, and Significance as Related in Prose and Verse, with a Non-sectional Anthology of the Civil W. BiblioBazaar reprint 2010.

External links

Look up Memorial Day in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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