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The story and meaning behind Memorial Day

Guest Editorial

Some people think Veterans Day and Memorial Day are both reserved for veterans. In a sense they’re right, but in actuality they were formed as two separate holiday observations. Veterans Day is not to be confused with Memorial Day.

Veterans Day celebrates the service of all U.S. military veterans. But Memorial Day, observed on the last Monday of May, honors the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military.

Originally known as Decoration Day, it started in the years after the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971.

Decoration Day first was marked in 1868, when the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Union veterans founded in Decatur, Ill., established it as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the Union war dead with flowers. By the 20th century, competing Union and Confederate holiday traditions, celebrated on different days, had merged and Memorial Day eventually extended to honor all Americans who died while in the military service. It also marks the unofficial start of the summer vacation season.

The preferred name for the holiday gradually changed from Decoration Day to Memorial Day, which was first used in 1882. Memorial Day did not become the more common name until after World War II and was not declared the official name by federal law until 1967.

On June 28, 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which moved four holidays, including Memorial Day, from the traditional dates to a specified Monday in order to create a convenient three-day weekend. 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, all 50 states adopted the Congressional change of date within a few years.

In a traditional observance of Memorial Day, the U.S. flag is raised briskly to the top of the staff and then solemnly lowered to the half-staff position, where it remains until noon. It is then raised to full-staff the rest of the day.

The half-staffed 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 raise up their stead and continue the fight for liberty and justice for all.

This Memorial Day, let us be reminded of some greatest quotes from two of our past great presidents:

“America was not built on fears, America was built on courage, on imagination, and on unbeatable determination to the job at hand.” –Harry Truman

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words but to live by them.” — John F. Kennedy

So let us never forget the brave men and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice when they laid down their lives for the cost of freedom.

— James E. Brown, Dickinson County Director of Veteran Affairs

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