It鈥檚 Memorial Day. Who are we remembering?
| Washington
It鈥檚 Memorial Day. Who are we remembering?
You鈥檇 think that is an easy question to answer, but it isn鈥檛. There鈥檚 an official definition of Memorial Day, and then there鈥檚 the way American citizens actually celebrate it. The two don鈥檛 always mesh.
Memorial Day, to the US government, is the time to remember those who died while serving in the military.
鈥淚n observance of the holiday, many people visit cemeteries and memorials, and volunteers often place American flags on each gravesite at national cemeteries. A national moment of remembrance takes place at 3:00 p.m. local time,鈥� reads the Department of Veterans Affairs .
It began as a sectional celebration, with its roots in division, and was known as Decoration Day. Following the end of the Civil War, North and South separately developed the tradition of decorating the graves of fallen soldiers, on separate days.
Some Southern locations held their decoration day (lower-cased in the beginning) on May 10, the anniversary of Stonewall Jackson鈥檚 death. Others held it on April 26, the day the surrender of the final Confederate Army in the field truly ended the war, or on June 3, Jefferson Davis鈥檚 birthday.
Northerners also generally remembered their war dead on spring days. That was when flowers were available for wreaths and memorial sprays, after all. In 1868, US Army Gen. John Logan, commander in chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, the politically powerful organization of Union veterans, issued a naming May 30 as a day to mound the graves of the war dead with 鈥渢he choicest flowers of spring time.鈥�
The melding of regional remembrance into a national one was a gradual process. Following the brief Spanish-American War of 1898, President William McKinley got things started, with a speech in Atlanta in which he said, 鈥淓very soldier鈥檚 grave made during our unfortunate Civil War is a tribute to American valor.鈥� In the summer of 1913, an encampment of Civil War veterans at Gettysburg, Pa., which included many former Confederates, helped move the two sides further to reconciliation.
But it took further shared suffering to make Decoration Day national. In the wake of the national effort in World War I the regional aspect of the holiday began to fade. Following the armistice most southern regions began to celebrate the May 30 holiday in addition to their local decoration days.
World War II further diminished the Civil War origins of Decoration Day in the collective national memory. In 1967, federal law officially recognized the holiday as 鈥淢emorial Day,鈥� the by-then common name. In 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which established a number of three-day US holidays. Memorial Day was officially set as the last Monday in May.
Over the years the holiday鈥檚 purpose began to change. Its date has made it an unofficial start of summer. For some Americans, its name had made it a time to remember veterans as a whole, not just those who died in uniform.
Veterans鈥� Day, in November, is the holiday meant to recognize all who served in the armed forces. But how many social media posts today have you seen that mention the military as an institution? We鈥檙e betting lots. On its mobile interface, Facebook this morning posted what appears to be an institutional post (company logo in the corner) to that effect, saying that 鈥淭oday, we remember together . . . those who have served our country.鈥�
It鈥檚 not uncommon for holidays to transform a bit 鈥� George Washington鈥檚 Birthday, the official name of the February holiday, has morphed in the public mind into 鈥淧resident鈥檚 Day,鈥� an all-encompassing celebration of all things national chief executive. As we鈥檝e written often over the years, President鈥檚 Day, in a national sense, does not exist. Yet there it is, in car and mattress ads in every remaining American newspaper.
Americans develop their own traditions. Our wife鈥檚 New England family upholds the Decoration Day aspects of today, but in their own way 鈥� it鈥檚 traditional for family members to travel around and decorate with flowers the gravesites of all ancestors, whether they served in the military or not.
There鈥檚 nothing wrong with that. Memorial Day is what individuals make of it. That鈥檚 the kind of freedom our veterans 鈥� including those who sacrificed their lives 鈥� protected, and our armed forces, including those once again near the front lines fighting the Islamic State, are protecting today.
