Memorial Day is
an American holiday, observed on the last Monday of May, having been observed on May 30 from 1868 to 1970. It honors the men and women who died while serving in
the U.S. military. Memorial Day 2020 occurs on Monday, May 25.
Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following
the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971. Pre-Corona Virus
many Americans observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries or memorials,
holding family gatherings and participating in parades, going to beaches and
summer cottages. Unofficially, it marks the beginning of the summer season.
In the middle of
the corona virus the weekend now varies from state to state. Social distancing
is required, group sizes vary from ten people up to maybe fifty. (I don’t know each
state’s requirements). People are heading to the beaches but there are now
rules to follow. Large groups and concerts are all canceled.
Historically the Civil
War, which ended in the spring of 1865, claimed more lives than any conflict in
U.S. history and required 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.
Each year on Memorial Day a national moment of
remembrance takes place at 3:00 p.m. local time.
It is unclear
where exactly this tradition originated; numerous different communities may
have independently initiated the memorial gatherings. And some records show
that one of the earliest Memorial Day commemoration was organized by a group of
freed slaves in Charleston, South Carolina less than a month after the
Confederacy surrendered in 1865. Nevertheless, in 1966 the federal government
declared Waterloo, New York, the official birthplace of Memorial Day.
Happy
Memorial Day!
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