Decoration Day

I remember, as a child, the last weekend in May being observed as Decoration Day. It included as the central activity, a family outing to the cemetery. Carrying a full bouquet of fresh cut bobbing peonies in full bloom along for the ride, we would head to the cemetery. There we would do a bit of clean up of a the relatives's grave. We would pull the upside down heavy metal vase from it's hiden below ground cubbyhole next to the gave's marker, fill it with water from a faucet that jutted directly out of the cemeteries lawn, place the top heavy backyard blosoms bouquet of peonies. Somewhere during the process children's questions regarding who was that, when did they die, how are we related, etc. would be answered to varying degrees of childish satifaction and we would head back home. 

No one in our family was a veteran nor did we have any relatives who had fallen in war but, that focus of the day was mentioned none the less. Decorating the graves were to honor those who went before, in particular those who had gone before and had fought in wars to protect our freedoms. For our family, that was pretty much the extent of the explainations and the observation of what we now more commonly call Memorial Day.

These days I hang a U.S. flag, we have a family gathering with bar-b-q and picnic food. That pretty much sums up the day. A day honoring those who gave their lives in wars and conflicts engaged in by our country deserve more though. A greater understanding of the freedoms we have inherited because of the courage of so many, deserves a pause to acknowledge with gratitude what we have been given. 

What I learned from a bit of internet searching includes some history from the website of Nursey enterprises: https://www.nurseryenterprises.com/decoration-day/

The first national celebration of Decoration Day took place May 30, 1868, at Arlington National Cemetery, where both Confederate and Union soldiers were buried. Shortly thereafter, some Americans, including high officials in the U.S. Government, began to refer to it as Memorial Day. Its focus, though, still lingered on the Civil War. The U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs states, “By the end of the 19th century, Memorial Day ceremonies were being held on May 30 throughout the nation.”

After WWI, the federal government went further and declared the last Monday in May to be called Memorial Day as a day to honor all Americans who have died in military service for the United States and to decorate their graves. The most recent official acts came in 1968 and in 1971 when Congress declared Memorial Day a National Holiday to be observed on the last Monday in May.

After WWI Red Poppies were added as a symbol to the annual observence. From a Good Housekeeping article: https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/holidays/a27419480/memorial-day-poppy-flower-symbol/ 

Poppies, often made of fabric or crepe paper, symbolize more than a fundraising effort to support our country’s veterans: They honor and memorialize fallen soldiers. The red poppy officially became the national emblem of remembrance in 1920 – but the resilient little flower's roots run deep, all the way back to the battlefields of World War I, where it grew in the unlikeliest of places.

“In Flanders Fields” by John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.