Memorial Day is a federal holiday that is celebrated on the final Monday of May. Originally Memorial Day was known as Decoration Day and both Northern and Southern Civil War Veterans were honored on this day. Flags and flowers are placed at the resting places of those who have served our country.
It is implied that the first Memorial Day occurred on June 3, 1861 in Warrenton, VA, where “the first Civil War soldier’s grave was decorated”. Confederate soldier’s graves were decorated in Savannah, GA in 1862. The dedication of the Gettysburg cemetery in 1863 was a ceremony of commemoration at the graves of dead soldiers. Boalsburg, PA promotes itself as the birthplace of Memorial Day because it is claimed by local historians that ladies there decorated the graves of soldiers on July 4, 1864. The number of soldiers that died on both sides during the Civil War was more than 600,000. In 1865 the federal government began creating national military cemeteries for dead Union soldiers. In Columbus, Miss. in April of 1866 a group of women visited a cemetery to decorate Confederate soldiers graves who had fallen at Shiloh. Nearby were the neglected graves of Union soldiers, the women placed flowers on these graves as well as the graves of their soldiers.
On May 5th, 1868, three years after the Civil War had ended, the head of the Union Veterans-the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR)-established Decoration Day as a day to decorate the graves of the dead with flowers. It was to be observed on May 30th, presumably because flowers all over the country would be in bloom.
The first large observance was held at Arlington National Cemetery. The ceremony centered around the Arlington mansion, which was once the home of General Robert E. Lee. Various government officials, including General and Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant presided over the ceremonies. Flowers were strewn over both the Union and Confederate soldier’s graves.
The preferred name for the holiday gradually changed from “Decoration Day” to “Memorial Day” and was first used in 1882. After World War II it became a more common name and was not declared the official name by federal law until 1967. The Uniform Monday Holiday Act was passed on June 28, 1968 by Congress. This changed Memorial Day from the traditional May 30th date to the last Monday in May.
In 1971 Memorial Day became a national holiday.
On Memorial Day, the United States flag is raised to the top of the staff and then solemnly lowered to the half-staff position, where it remains until noon. It remains at full-staff then for the remainder of the day.
