Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States honoring and mourning military personnel who have died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. It is always the last Monday of May. This is a day when grateful Americans take a pause. A pause to remember those that gave it all for our country. They loved our country so much they were willing to lay down everything including their lives for its legacy.
As we remember Arlington and all of the rows and rows of white crosses, take a moment to remember that every one of them represents a life lost or maybe never beginning, a family impacted forever and sons and daughters that were lost in the cause of our freedom.
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots “…Thomas Jefferson
“Democracy is worth dying for because it is the mostly honorable form of government ever devised by man” …Ronald Reagan
It all started after the Civil War when National Cemeteries were established to bury all of the casualties of that war. In May 1868 the day was deemed Decoration Day because so many family members came to the cemeteries to refresh them after the winter and lay flowers. President Ulysses S. Grant gave the first-ever Decoration Day commemoration at Arlington, It originally was intended for the Civil War casualties but after World War l’s huge losses, it was expanded to include all of the fallen from every war. In 1967, right in the middle of the Vietnam War, the day was officially changed to Memorial Day. The red poppy is the official flower of Memorial Day and was inspired by the poem “In Flanders Field “ by Lt. Col. John McCrea, MD in 1915.
