Hidden Corners of History- Memorial Day

Memorial Day

Jarrod E. Stephens

The Ashland Beacon

It just seems like yesterday when my dad would load our family into the truck, and we’d spend a day traversing the county roads as we went to pay respects to our relatives who had passed on before us. It was an annual Memorial Day tradition, and since we had a large family, there were lots of stops at hillside graveyards. As a kid, I would read the headstones and was amazed at how many of the deceased were military veterans. At that time, there were markers signifying veterans from the Vietnam War all the way back to the Revolutionary War.

Our dad’s annual history lesson of our family lineage was thorough, and our respect for our ancestors was as well. While I am not as knowledgeable as my dad when it comes to our family tree, I still take my sons to multiple graveyards each year on Memorial Day to honor our relatives, both veteran and non-veteran, as a sign of respect to a holiday that now goes largely unnoticed by our younger generation. So, where did this tradition that became Memorial Day come from?

In the years following the Civil War, communities were dotted with cemeteries where fallen soldiers were buried. More than 600,000 soldiers died during the conflict. Families of the soldiers would decorate the graves with flowers and flags to honor their sacrifice. The flowers would bloom throughout the year. A veterans’ organization called The Grand Army of the Republic soon formalized their actions and created Decoration Day in 1868 to set May 30th as the day for commemorating the lives of the Civil War soldiers.

It doesn’t take a history buff to know that America’s involvement in military conflicts continued, and early in the 20th century we found ourselves involved in WWI. Sadly, we again lost many young soldiers in the conflict, and a new generation of mourners began to decorate their graves.

Waterloo, New York, became famous for Decoration Day because it shut down schools and businesses to honor the fallen by decorating graves with flags and flowers. Waterloo was declared “The birthplace of Memorial Day” by the federal government in 1966. For decades, May 30th was the designated day for memorial and decoration, but in 1971 Congress declared Memorial Day a federal holiday as they signed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act.

Since 1775, there have been more than 2 million American soldiers who died as a result of combat and non-combat injuries. That sacrifice can never go unnoticed and should be the focal point of the day on Monday, May 26.

Now formally observed on the last Monday in May, Memorial Day allows each of us the chance to honor our fallen heroes by visiting veterans’ memorials and family cemeteries. Each Memorial Day, thousands of flags are placed throughout Arlington Cemetery in Washington, D.C., and the President of the United States will ceremoniously place a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

In 2000, a resolution called “National Moment of Remembrance” was passed and declared that at 3 p.m. on Memorial Day individuals should “voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a moment of remembrance and respect.” This Memorial Day, slow down, put the phone down, and take the time to visit your family cemeteries and pay respects to the ones who gave everything so that we can live free.