MEMORIAL DAY

Memorial Day is a day of remembrance of those who died in the service of our country.  Since 1971 they have been specially honored on the last Monday in May; from 1868 to 1970 it was celebrated on May 30 and was called Decoration Day for part of that time.

There are many stories as to Memorial Day's actual beginnings, with over two dozen cities and towns laying claim to being the birthplace of Memorial Day.  There is also evidence that organized women's groups in the South were decorating graves before the end of the Civil War.  A hymn published in 1867 -- Kneel Where Our Loves are Sleeping -- carried the dedication "To The Ladies of the South who are Decorating the Graves of the Confederate Dead."  While Waterloo, NY was officially declared the birthplace of Memorial Day by President Lyndon Johnson in May 1966, it is difficult to prove conclusively the origins of the day.

Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on May 5, 1868 by General John Logan, Army Commander, in his General Order No. 11 and was first observed on May 30, 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery.

The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war.

Memorial Day is now celebrated in almost every state on the last Monday in May; a law was passed by Congress in 1968 to ensure a three-day weekend for federal holidays.  Several southern states have an additional day for honoring the Confederate war dead:  January 19 in Texas, April 26 in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Mississippi, May 10 in South Carolina and June 3 (Jefferson Davis' birthday) in Louisiana and Tennessee.

In 1915, inspired by the poem In Flanders Fields, Moina Michael wrote her own poem:

We cherish too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies.

She then decided to wear red poppies on Memorial Day in honor of those who died serving the nation during war.  She also sold poppies to her friends and co-workers and used the money she collected to benefit servicemen in need.  Later a Madam Guerin from France was visiting the U.S. and learned of the new custom started by Ms. Michael and when she returned to France, she made artificial red poppies to raise money for war orphaned children and widowed women,  This tradition spread to other countries.  In 1948 the U.S. Post Office honored Ms. Michael for her role in founding the National Poppy movement by issuing a red 3-cent postage stamp with her likeness on it.

Since the late 1950s, on the Thursday before Memorial Day, the 1,200 soldiers of the 3rd U.S. Infantry place small American flags at each of the more than 260,000 gravestones at Arlington National Cemetery.  They then patrol 24 hours a day during the weekend to ensure that each flag remains standing.

To help the many Americans who today have forgotten the meaning and traditions of Memorial Day, a "National Moment of Remembrance" resolution was passed in December 2000 which asks that at 3:00 pm local time, Americans "to voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a moment of remembrance and respect, pausing from whatever they are doing for a moment of silence or listening to Taps. 

On January 19, 1999 Senator Inouye introduced bill S. 189 to the Senate which proposes to restore the traditional day of observance of Memorial Day back to May 30 instead of the "last Monday in May."  On April 19, 1999, Representative Gibbons introduced the bill, HR 1474, to the House.  The bills were referred to the Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on Government Reform and to date there has been no further developments on these bills.