Why We have Memorial Day

NL-Please have a safe & happy holiday. Don’t drink & drive. Remember our Veterans & our Soldiers, living and dead.

 

The Reason For Memorial Day From Wikipedia

At the end of the Civil War, communities set aside a day to mark the end of the war or as a memorial to those who had died. Some of the places creating an early memorial day include Sharpsburg, Maryland, located near Antietam Battlefield; Charleston, South Carolina; Boalsburg, Pennsylvania; Carbondale, Illinois; Columbus, Mississippi; many communities in Vermont; and some two dozen other cities and towns. These observances coalesced around Decoration Day, honoring the Confederate dead, and the several Confederate Memorial Days.

According to Professor David Blight of the Yale University History Department, the first memorial day was observed by formerly enslaved black people at the Washington Race Course (today the location of Hampton Park) in Charleston, South Carolina. The race course had been used as a temporary Confederate prison camp for captured Union soldiers in 1865, as well as a mass grave for Union soldiers who died there. Immediately after the cessation of hostilities, formerly enslaved people exhumed the bodies from the mass grave and reinterred them properly with individual graves. They built a fence around the graveyard with an entry arch and declared it a Union graveyard. The work was completed in only ten days.

On May 1, 1865, the Charleston newspaper reported that a crowd of up to ten thousand, mainly black residents, including 2800 children, proceeded to the location for included sermons, singing, and a picnic on the grounds, thereby creating the first Decoration Day.[2]

The first observance was in Waterloo, New York on May 5, 1866, and each year thereafter. The friendship between General John Murray, a distinguished citizen of Waterloo, and General John A. Logan, who helped bring attention to the event nationwide, was likely a factor in the holiday’s growth.

On May 5, 1868, in his capacity as commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, a veterans’ organization, Logan issued a proclamation that "Decoration Day" be observed nationwide.[3] It was observed for the first time on May 30 of the same year; the date was chosen because it was not the anniversary of a battle. The tombs of fallen Union soldiers were decorated in remembrance.
Many of the states of the U.S. South refused to celebrate Decoration Day, due to lingering hostility towards the Union Army and also because there were relatively few veterans of the Union Army who were buried in the South. A notable exception was Columbus, Mississippi, which on April 25, 1866, at its Decoration Day commemorated both the Union and Confederate casualties buried in its cemetery.[4]

The alternative name of "Memorial Day" was first used in 1882. It did not become more common until after World War II, and was not declared the official name by Federal law until 1967. On June 28, 1968, the United States Congress passed the Uniform Holidays Bill, which moved three holidays from their traditional dates to a specified Monday in order to create a convenient three-day weekend. The holidays included Washington’s Birthday, now celebrated as Presidents’ Day; Veterans Day and Memorial Day. 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.

After some initial confusion and unwillingness to comply, all 50 states adopted the measure within a few years. In 1978, Veterans Day was changed back to its traditional date on November 11. Most corporate businesses no longer close on Veterans Day, Columbus Day or President’s Day, with the day after Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and/or New Year’s Eve often substituted as more convenient "holidays" for their employees. Memorial Day endures as a holiday which most businesses observe because it marks the beginning of the "summer vacation season." This role is filled in neighboring Canada by Victoria Day, which occurs either on May 24 or the last Monday before that date, placing it exactly one week before Memorial Day.

5 thoughts on “Why We have Memorial Day

  1. Pingback: Tweets that mention LUKE IS BACK » Blog Archive » Why We have Memorial Day -- Topsy.com
  2. Honest Abe says:

    Here’s a poem I’ve always cherished:

    A SOLDIER DIED TODAY

    He was getting old and paunchy;
    And his hair was falling fast,
    And he sat around the Legion,
    Telling stories of the past.

    Of a war that he had fought in,
    And the deeds that he had done.
    In his exploits with his buddies;
    They were heroes, everyone.

    And ‘tho sometimes, to his neighbors,
    his tales became a joke.
    All his buddies listened,
    For they knew whereof he spoke.

    But we’ll hear his tales no longer,
    For ol’ Bob has passed away,
    And the world’s a little poorer,
    For a soldier died today.

    He won’t be mourned by many,
    Just his children and his wife.
    For he lived an ordinary…
    Very quiet sort of life.

    He held a job and raised a family,
    Quietly going on his way.
    And the world won’t note his passing,
    ‘Tho a soldier died today.

    When the politicians leave this earth,
    Their bodies lie in state.
    While thousands note their passing,
    And proclaim that they were great.

    Papers tell of their life stories,
    From the time that they were young.
    But the passing of a soldier,
    Goes unnoticed, and unsung.

    Is the greatest contribution,
    To the welfare of our land,
    Some jerk who breaks his promise,
    And cons his fellow man?

    Or the ordinary fellow,
    Who in times of war and strife,
    Goes off to serve his Country…
    And offers up his life?

    The politician’s stipend,
    And the style in which he lives,
    Are sometimes disproportionate,
    To the service he gives.

    While the ordinary soldier,
    Who offered up his all,
    Is paid off with a medal,
    And perhaps a pension…small.

    It’s so easy to forget them,
    For it is so long ago,
    That our Bob’s and Jim’s and Johnny’s,
    Went to battle, but we know.

    It was not the politicians,
    With their compromise and ploys;
    Who won for us the freedom,
    That our Country now enjoys.

    Should you find yourself in danger,
    With your enemies at hand;
    Would you really want some cop-out,
    With his ever waffling stand?

    Or would you want a Soldier,
    Who has sworn to defend,
    His home, his kin and Country,
    And would fight until the end?

    He was just a common Soldier,
    And his ranks are growing thin.
    But his presence should remind us,
    We may need his like again.

    For when countries are in conflict,
    Then we find the Soldier’s part,
    Is to clean up all the troubles,
    That the politicians start.

    If we cannot do him honor,
    While he’s here to hear the praise.
    Then at least let’s give him homage,
    At the ending of his days.

    Perhaps just a simple headline,
    In the paper that might say,
    “OUR COUNTRY IS IN MOURNING,
    FOR A SOLDIER DIED TODAY.”

    by A. Lawrence Vaincourt

  3. jeremiahsteele says:

    Nice, Honest Abe.

    Pondering and studying the wars that have been fought: Revolutionary War, Civil War, etc, really puts things in perspective and should make us all grateful for what we have, even during these shitty economic times.

  4. RickMadrid says:

    yeah only 3 or 4 more months and that is it for this industry folks!! Got to run a atricle on here. What would you do after the industry is gone and closed ???

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