The History of
Memorial Day
True
or Not True Facts about Memorial Day
Memorial Day was started by former slaves on May, 1, 1865 in
Charleston, SC to honor 257 dead Union Soldiers who had been buried in a mass
grave in a Confederate prison camp. They dug up the bodies and worked for 2
weeks to give them a
proper burial as gratitude for fighting for their freedom. They then held a
parade of 10,000 people led by 2,800 Black children where they marched, sang,
and celebrated.
Info from Abstrakt
Goldsmith. Picture from Afropunk.
From snopes.com
It is true that free blacks in Charleston did rebury the dead Union prisoners of war and held a cemetery dedication ceremony. It is undetermined however if the event is the origin of the modern Memorial Day observance.
The custom of holding observances (including the laying of flowers
on burial sites) to remember and honor those who gave their lives in military
service goes back many hundreds, if not thousands, of years. In the United
States, that custom has long since been formalized in the creation of Memorial
Day (formerly known as Decoration Day), a federal holiday observed on the last
Monday in May to remember the men and women who died while serving in the
United States Armed Forces.
In a formal sense, the modern Memorial Day originated with an order
issued in 1868 by Maj. Gen. John A. Logan, the commander in chief of the Grand
Army of the Republic, for the annual decoration of war graves:
Three years after the Civil War ended, on May 5, 1868, the head of
an organization of Union veterans — the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) —
established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of
the war dead with flowers. Maj. Gen. John A. Logan declared that Decoration Day
should be observed on May 30. It is believed that date was chosen because
flowers would be in bloom all over the country.
There have been many debates about the origins and first
observance of Memorial Day. To see these debate discussions, go to snopes.com
and bring up Memorial Day.
From
the official Arlington National Cemetery site:
About 5,000 visitors attend each of the two major annual
remembrance ceremonies in the Memorial Amphitheater. They take
place on Memorial Day and Veterans Day and are sponsored by the U.S. Army
Military District of Washington.
Many military organizations also conduct annual memorial
services in the amphitheater. In addition, organizations also host memorial
observances and events at Arlington. All ceremonies and special events are free
and open to the public.
The
gift of flowers at a memorial site is a ritual that occurs around the world,
understood in every culture. The floral tributes at funerals bespeak both the
beauty and the brevity of life and evoke memories of other days. These types of
memorials are made each day at Arlington National Cemetery, at the dozens of
funerals occurring there and in solitary communion with a departed loved one.
More
formal ceremonies involve the laying of a wreath and the attendance of others
at this ritual. These, too, are held frequently at Arlington. The most solemn
and august of these occur on state occasions where the president or his
designee lays a wreath to mark the national observance of Veterans Day,
Memorial Day or some other special occasion. As a general rule these take place
at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, attended by ceremonial units from the
uniformed services.
150 Anniversary of
Arlington National Cemetery
If
you ever get the chance to visit Arlington National Cemetery you will feel very
patriotic. I visited there with the Class of ’59, in 1959, during our Rockland
High School Senior Trip. We watched the changing of the guard. As I remember it
was windy and rainy but I was still very much moved by the soldiers as they
performed this duty. They do this every day, rain or shine, or whatever else
the weather becomes that day.
The
tomb is guarded 24 hours a day and the guard is changed throughout the day at
different intervals depending on the day.
This
year is the 150th anniversary of the cemetery. Our great-aunt, Capt.
Mary Sue Emery, Nursing Corp of the Army/Air Force is buried here in the nurses
section of the cemetery. I hope to visit her there someday.
Enjoy
your Memorial Day and thanks for listening.
No comments:
Post a Comment