Remembering those who paid the ultimate price.

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Decoration Day is celebrated on the last Monday of May. This year it will be celebrated on May 26. Decoration Day, now Memorial Day, is a special celebration to honor our veterans and remember those who died while in the armed services. It originated in the aftermath of the Civil War. Families and brothers-in-arms of the fallen on both sides of that conflict, north, and south, came together in commemoration by laying flowers on the graves of the dead, in honor of their sacrifice. The Civil War ended in 1865 and claimed more lives than any other conflict in U.S. history.

Although it is unclear where this tradition originated; different communities may have independently initiated the memorial gatherings for their relatives who died. Some records show that one of the earliest commemorations of Memorial Day was organized by a group of formerly enslaved people in South Carolina less than a month after the Confederacy surrendered in 1865. However, the federal government declared Waterloo, New York, the official birthplace of Memorial Day in 1966.

While Decoration Day originally honored only those lost while fighting in the Civil War, it evolved to also commemorate all American military personnel who died during military operations, including during World War I, World War II, the Vietnam War, and the Korean War and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 1968, the Uniform Monday Holiday Act was passed by Congress, which established Memorial Day as the last Monday in May to create a three-day weekend for federal employees. The change went into effect in 1971. Moreover, the same law declared Memorial Day a federal holiday.

 

 

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The graveyard at my church is one of the oldest in the area. It is the final resting place for three Revolutionary War patriots and dozens of Civil War solders. The VFW places American flags at each of these headstones on Memorial day. The Daughters of the Confederacy also place the "Stars and Bars" alongside the American flags to honor the service and sacrifice of those who died.

In North Carolina it is referred to as the War of Northern Aggression rather than the Civil War.

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Welcome back into the USA  Richard.