Memorial Day – American Holiday
Date of Memorial Day
The final Monday in May is observed as Memorial Day in the United States. Memorial Day falls on May 31 in 2021.
What is the Memorial Day’s past?
Memorial Day, which was first known as Decoration Day, got its start when Civil War soldiers’ graves were decorated with flowers by civilians. The holiday’s name was changed to Memorial Day after World War I so that it may be honored in memory of all American war dead.
What customs surround Memorial Day?
The observance of Memorial Day is marked by a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery’s Tomb of the Unknowns, religious services, parades, and speeches across the nation, as well as the laying of flags, insignia, and flowers on soldiers’ graves.
Memorial Day, also known as Decoration Day, is a federal holiday observed on the final Monday in May in remembrance of those who lost their lives serving their country.
It got its start when Civil War soldiers were buried and their graves were decorated with flowers by civilians. The origin of the holiday has been attributed to more than a dozen locations.
For example, it is stated that three women in Boalsburg, Pennsylvania, adorned the graves of loved ones who passed away during the Civil War in October 1864. They later returned in July 1865 with a large number of their neighbors for a larger commemoration.
In May 1865, a sizable celebration that was mostly attended by African Americans took place in Charleston, South Carolina. In 1866, Columbus, Mississippi, held an official memorial service for the Union and Confederate dead.
By legislative declaration in 1966, Waterloo, New York, was named as the city where the holiday originated, also in 1866.
A national holiday was sponsored on May 30 in 1868 by John A. Logan, the leader of the Grand Army of the Republic, a group of Union veterans, “to strew with flowers or otherwise beautifying the graves of comrades who perished in defense of their country during the late rebellion.”
After World War I, the holiday’s name was changed from Decoration Day to Memorial Day as it began to be honored in memory of those who had perished in all American wars.
The last Monday in May has been commemorated as Memorial Day since 1971. A separate day is also observed in several Southern states to remember the fallen Confederates.
In addition to memorial services, parades, and speeches held across the country, Memorial Day is marked with the placing of a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.
Veterans’ graves are decorated with flags, emblems, and flowers in nearby cemeteries. The day has also arrived to mark the start of summer in the US.
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