The origins of Memorial Day date back to the American Civil War. While the exact location and place of the first memorial services are lost to history, war widows placed flowers on the graves of the soldiers who had fallen in service to the country. Many Southern widows placed flowers on the graves of Union soldiers as well as Confederate soldiers buried in their towns. Memorial Day ( originally known as Decoration Day) was officially proclaimed in 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, what we would now call the US Army. It was first observed on 30 May 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery.
A Canadian Surgeon and Army Officer named John McCrae said it best in 1915,
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 above 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.
While other nations wear poppies on November 11th (the day of the armistice for that war), or (for my Kiwi and Aussie BITOGers) on ANZAC Day, in the United States, we remember those who have fallen in combat on Memorial Day, in May, following the tradition that dates back to our Civil War.
It’s hard for us to understand the magnitude of the American Civil War. Over 497,000 soldiers were killed with a devastating effect on American society. That’s nearly the entire population of Vermont today. The United States in 1860 had a population of roughly 30 million, compared with 290 million now. So that casualty figure as a percentage of society would be 10 times worse, or 5 million, today. That kind of percentage meant that everyone living in the United States at the end of the Civil War had a friend, or a neighbor, or a husband, a father or a son, who was killed in the war.
That's why Memorial Day, in this country, has such significance...at least, I thought it did...
