MEMORIAL DAY

This weekend most of us will celebrate Memorial Day with BBQ and beer.  For some it will pass unnoticed.  For some it will remind us of those that have served their country.

Memorial Day in Tucson, AZ

Originally it was known as  Decoration Day.  It is to commemorate U.S. soldiers who died while in the military service.  It was first enacted to honor Union and Confederate soldiers following the American Civil War, it was extended after World War I to honor  Americans who have died in all wars.

It began as a ritual of remembrance and reconciliation after the civil war, by the 20th century, Memorial Day was an occasion for more general expressions of memory, as ordinary people visited the graves of their deceased relatives.

The practice of decorating soldiers' graves was widespread in the North by 1865.  The first known observance was in Waterloo, New York.  It was because of the friendship between General John Murray and  General John A. Logan that helped bring attention to the event to the Nation as a whole.  On May 5, 1886 that General Logan issued a proclamation that "Decoration Day" should be observed nationwide.  At this time Logan was the commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic.  The date of celebration was chosen because it was NOT the anniversary of a battle.

Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery

The earliest Confederate Memorial Day celebrations were simple, somber occasions for veterans and their families to honor the day and attend to local cemeteries.  Only after 1890, was there a shift from this consolatory emphasis on honoring specific soldiers to public commemoration of the Confederate "Lost Cause".  It was 1913 that the theme of American Nationalism shared equal time with the Lost Cause.

On Memorial Day the flag is flown at half-staff until noon.  This 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.

Coming Home

This Memorial Day let us all resolve to not let their sacrifice be in vain.