And, as we remember those who died in service to our country, let us give thanks to those who are serving now and to all our Veterans for their past service to our country.
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| All gave some... some gave all. |
Memorial Day History
American Widow Project
The Origin of Sounding Taps
You Tube Rememberance: Buglers at Arlington National Cemetery
Below is a Short History of Memorial Day, Courtesy of The History Channel...
http://www.history.com/topics/holidays/memorial-day-history
Early Observances of Memorial Day
The Civil War claimed more lives than any conflict in U.S. history,
requiring the establishment of the country’s first national cemeteries.
By the late 1860s Americans in various towns and cities had begun
holding springtime tributes to these countless fallen soldiers,
decorating their graves with flowers and reciting prayers.
It is unclear where exactly this tradition originated; numerous different communities may have independently initiated the memorial gatherings. Nevertheless, in 1966 the federal government declared Waterloo, New York, the official birthplace of Memorial Day. Waterloo—which had first celebrated the day on May 5, 1866—was chosen because it hosted an annual, community-wide event, during which businesses closed and residents decorated the graves of soldiers with flowers and flags.
It is unclear where exactly this tradition originated; numerous different communities may have independently initiated the memorial gatherings. Nevertheless, in 1966 the federal government declared Waterloo, New York, the official birthplace of Memorial Day. Waterloo—which had first celebrated the day on May 5, 1866—was chosen because it hosted an annual, community-wide event, during which businesses closed and residents decorated the graves of soldiers with flowers and flags.
Decoration Day
On May 5, 1862, General John A. Logan, leader of an organization for
Northern Civil War veterans, called for a nationwide day of remembrance
later that month. “The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose
of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades
who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and
whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard
in the land,” he proclaimed. The date of Decoration Day, as he called
it, was chosen because it wasn’t the anniversary of any particular
battle.On the first Decoration Day, General James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, and 5,000 participants decorated the graves of the 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers buried there. Many Northern states held similar commemorative events and reprised the tradition in subsequent years; by 1890 each one had made Decoration Day an official state holiday. Many Southern states, on the other hand, continued to honor their dead on separate days until after World War I.
Evolution of Memorial Day
Memorial Day, as Decoration Day gradually came to be known, originally honored only those lost while fighting in the Civil War. But during World War I the United States found itself embroiled in another major conflict, and the holiday evolved to commemorate American military personnel who died in all wars.
For decades, Memorial Day continued to be observed on May 30, the
date Logan had selected for the first Decoration Day. But in 1968
Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which established
Memorial Day as the last Monday in May in order to create a three-day
weekend for federal employees; the change went into effect in 1971. The
same law also declared Memorial Day a federal holiday.
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