Arlington Cemetery
This year I am gearing up for our annual Memorial Day celebration. On May 25th, I am gathering my mini American flags together and heading down to the parade to see our local troops and veterans marching in honor of our fallen. I’ve always been a fan of the U.S. flag, but this holiday always makes me the proudest to fly it.
As years go by we all experience holidays a bit differently. When we are children we view holidays as a day away from school. When we grow older, a holiday can be a day away from the office, or an extra day to spend time with family. Somewhere in the middle of youth and old age, we learn the true meaning and value of the holidays we observe and celebrate throughout our lives. One holiday that we sometimes lose our sights on is Memorial Day. Each year families take advantage of the extra day off to throw a barbecue, to open the cottage, or drop the boat in the water. Movie studios use Memorial Day weekends as the opening of the Summer movie season. While holidays are what we make of them, none of the things mentioned above pays homage to what Memorial Day really stands for. So, at the risk of sounding like Linus from the Peanut’s Christmas Special, does anyone know what Memorial Day is all about?
The truest meaning of Memorial Day lies within it’s name: Memorial. It’s a day of remembrance. Known as Decoration Day in its earliest account, The observation of Memorial Day in the United States occurs each year on the last Monday in the month of May. Memorial Day commemorates the U.S. men and women who died while in the service of the military.
The roots of Memorial Day trace back to the end of the Civil War; several sources date the first memorial services to the mid-1860’s, with the first observation enacted by liberated slaves in 1865 at the site of a former Confederate prison camp in Charleston. The site was also known as a mass grave for Union soldiers who died in captivity. As the story goes, the freed slaves re-interred the dead from the mass grave, dug individual plots within a fenced graveyard. On May 30, 1868, they returned to the graveyard with flowers and decorated the individual graves, thereby creating the first Decoration Day. A parade from the area was followed by a picnic. Many other communities set aside a day to mark the end of the war as a memorial to those who had died. Communities known to have celebrated an early form of Memorial Day included: Sharpsburg, Maryland, Charleston, South Carolina, and Richmond, Virginia, among some two dozen others. Their observances happened around the first Decoration Day, and the several Confederate Memorial Days. In more modern times Memorial Day was expanded after World War I to include American casualties of any war or military action.
Today people observe Memorial Day a number of ways. First and foremost, Memorial Day is a nationally observed holiday. In addition to national observances, communities hold memorials for fallen soldiers who were from that town. It’s commonplace that, included with remembering those lost while in the service of the armed forces, local fire and police departments honor members lost in the line of duty. Members of a community who, at any time in their lives, served in the armed forces or as an emergency responder, can be seen marching in a parade. They can be identified not only by the uniforms they wear, but by the flags they carry. Each member will march in the company of their brothers and sisters, flying the flags of their branches. Some may carry more special of specific flags including POW/MIA flags indicating the prisoners of war, or to remember a fellow soldier who was. Another would be a Service banner or flag, indicating that a family member is currently on active duty. Parades in many communities are followed by a picnic at a local park in which the whole town is invited to attend. Just don’t forget to carry a mini U.S. flag… you don’t want to be left out! everyone is going to have one!!! 
Cemetery Grave Marker
More personally, those who have lost a member of their family, friend, colleague, fellow soldier or municipal emergency worker, may commemorate the day by visiting cemeteries and memorials. Uniformly, a national moment of remembrance takes place at 3 p.m. each Memorial Day. Traditions include flying the American Flag at half-staff from dawn until noon local time, and the placement of a miniature or cemetery marking American Flag on graves of the fallen.
Memory. That is what it’s all about. It’s not about car races, movies with special effects, long car rides to the amusement park, or a day off from school or work. Memorial Day is about remembering the brave men and women who sacrificed their lives so that we can have the opportunity to see that movie, root for the driver in that car race, and to take that long ride to Six Flags. and on Monday, May 25, 2009, when you see the American Flag at half staff, don’t forget it.
Lexi
