Today, May 30, 2011, is Memorial Day in the USA. It is different, to say the least. Originally dedicated to fallen soldiers of the USA Civil War, it now marks the start of the summer vacations.
Immediately after the end of the Civil War, there were many local ceremonies honoring slain soldiers. A fraternal organization for surviving soldiers of the Union Army designated May 30, 1868, for placing flowers (decorating) on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Decoration Day was born. Eventually the day was broadened to honor the fallen of all the armed services.
In 1915, Moina Michael wrote:
and started selling red poppies to raise money for impoverished veterans.
In 1971, the U.S. Congress changed the date of Memorial Day to the last Monday in May, coupling the day to a weekend. That changed everything. No longer a day only for remembering fallen soldiers, it is now a weekend signalling the start of summer and the many days of play sure to follow. Memorial Day has been secularized. I wish Congress would decouple Memorial Day from weekends, and restore Decoration Day to May 30.
Today, I ask my American readers to spend some time in remembrance of those who have fallen in military service to the country, and to reflect on the significance of their sacrifice.
Debit and credit – - David Albrecht
Hello. Miss Michael couldn’t have responded in 1915 to Canadian doctor Major McCrae’s 1915 Belgian battlefied poem because it was not published until nearly Christmas 1915, anonymously, in Punch magazine London England.
- And her country was still a Neutral, with no Veterans yet, joining in at Easter 1917, American soldiers Fell in Flanders Belgium in late 1918 – a Flanders Fields US military cemetery being established there.