America once again will celebrate Memorial Day Weekend over the next few days. I look forward to it.
It’s an opportunity to gather with family members, a time for reflection and visiting cemeteries to remember those who have passed on before us. As many times as I’ve written about
As many times as I’ve written about Memorial Day, I reflected back the other day and asked myself what do I know about how this holiday originated.
As I started doing some research, I discovered I knew very little.
I know it’s an annual holiday and is observed on the last Monday in May each year. I was aware that it honors the men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice while serving in the U.S. military and protecting Americans, its borders, and the freedoms we so much enjoy.
But according to the website history. com, it originally was known as Decoration Day. What I didn’t know is that it originated in the year following the end of the Civil War.
The Civil War ended in the Spring of 1865. Not sure I realized until researching this holiday that the Civil War claimed more lives than any other conflict in U.S. history.
This reportedly led to the establishment of the country’s first national cemeteries.
It became an official federal holiday in 1971. Many Americans observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries, attending memorials and other activities.
I’ve known for most all of my life that families celebrate it by holding family gatherings, participating in parades.
Though the official first day of summer isn’t until June 21, that website says the day unofficially marks the start of the summer season.
In 1966, the federal government declared that Waterloo, N.Y. was the official birthplace of Memorial Day. I surely wasn’t aware of that either.
Apparently Waterloo, which celebrated the day for the first time on May 5, 1866, was chosen because it hosted an annual community-wide event. Businesses were closed, and residents decorated the graves of soldiers with flowers and flags.
There are 20,000 Civil War soldiers buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
The holiday, that originally honored only those lost in the Civil War, has evolved to commemorate all of the American military personnel who have died in all wars, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.
The website points out there were more American lives lost in the Civil War than all of the other wars combined that succeeded it until the Vietnam War.
In 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act officially establishing the last Monday in May each year would be Memorial Day.
My wife Pat and I normally decorate graves at four different cemeteries in Shawnee and Oklahoma City too. We go to Resurrection and Fairlawn Cemeteries in Oklahoma City where both of my mothers, my dad, brother, two sets of grandparents, two aunts and an uncle were laid to rest.
At Resthaven and Fairview in Shawnee are where Pat’s dad, sister, grandmother and other relatives are buried.
Sometimes, just Pat and her mom will decorate the graves in Shawnee.
In December of this year we will mark the 70th anniversary of the passing of my biological mother.
My dad was a World War II veteran and this August will mark 33 years he has been gone. My uncle also served his country for eight years in the Air National Guard.
Usually one day during this weekend, we gather to celebrate the birthdays on Pat’s side of the family. We are planning to do that this weekend.
Pat’s mom turned 95 earlier this month.