Of course, many only know it by the modern name of Memorial Day. The day we set aside to remember those who died while serving the country in one of the branches of military service.
It is a holiday that began in the 1860’s as a result of the Civil War. There had never been a time to date when so many died, and national cemeteries were established to handle the number of grave sites required. By the end of that decade, many communities organized a day in the spring to spruce up the gravesites and to spend time in memory of those who had passed.
100 years after the end of the Civil war, in 1966, the Federal Government established Waterloo, NY as the birthplace of the holiday rememberance.
“Waterloo—which first celebrated the day on May 5, 1866—was chosen because it hosted an annual, community-wide event, during which businesses closed and residents decorated the graves of soldiers with flowers and flags.” [Source]
It did not become a Federal Holiday until 1971… and it was changed from May 30th to the 4th Monday of May because of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1968… I was 13 years old! Funny. I don’t have a deep memory of this Holiday Weekend and I was still in School during these years. Of course, it was so late in May that often our school was in the process of letting out for the summer and it may not have been on my radar.
Sadly, today is just another day for many Americans, albeit a long weekend celebration that ushers in the summer season. The connection to the past is severing, and, unless you have a job that requires you to work, most simply spend the long weekend as a travel weekend.
If you have a family member buried, or you have experienced a touching moment of memory at a cemetery, then you find this holiday an important time to remember and honor those who have have served.
According to mom I have a cousin who died in WWII and his plane went down close to the UK (English Channel rings a bell), and to the best of my recolection, he was never recovered.
A few years ago, my bride and I went to Washington D.C. and spent time at the National Cemetery, wandering through the seemingly infinite number of simple white stone markers.
There is a lot of history here.
We found the graves of well known celebrities, and thousands of headstones representing, at least in my mind, the unknown and forgotten. True, there were grave markers for those missing in action, and unknown, and while we could read their names, their were no family members honoring them so that we could ask questions.
My father-in-law, Kenneth, is buried at a similar place in Houston. And now, my mother-in-law is there with him. The rule is that the surviving spouse can be buried with the service member as long as they do not remarry.
I have an uncle who was at Pearl Harbor. He died a few years ago in Walla Walla, Washington and I was with him that day. I have friends who served in Vietnam, and my dad was stationed in Germany during the Korean War. In our church, and memories, I have known soldiers who served during WWII and I’ve loved getting to know them better through their lives lived long after their service.
My sister brought me some sand from France along the beaches of D-Day, and I’ve been to Dutch Harbor where the only foreign soldiers touched American Soil in WWII…of course, Alaska was not a state at the time. That happened 14 years after the close of the war.
Perhaps it’s good to have a tradition that honors the lives of those who served… No matter which war, or time period. Could it be that if we honored those lives we would work harder to make sure that the future contained less need for their role in our protection? I’m not sure. It’s simply a good thought.
For me, it’s not a day for parades or parties. It’s really a somber time. Pause. Remember. Reflect.
How do you reflect on this Decoration Day?