Reflecting on the reason for Memorial Day
If we had our guess, you were off work Monday. Maybe you slept in. Maybe you officially welcomed swimming pool season and fired up the grill for a much-needed evening with family and friends. Maybe you used the long weekend to take a short vacation. Or maybe you even opted for productivity, tackling some nagging spring cleaning or working in the yard or flowerbeds.
We did those things, too. Nothing wrong with them.
But we hope you also remembered why the last Monday in May is called Memorial Day.
Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in service of the United States of America. The observance was borne out of the Civil War and a desire to honor our dead. It was officially proclaimed May 5, 1868, by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11. The date of Decoration Day, as he called it, was chosen because it wasn’t the anniversary of any particular battle.
It is now observed in almost every state on the last Monday in May, with Congressional passage of the National Holiday Act of 1971.
Even if you were wrapped up in personal projects or amusements Monday, we hope you at least paused at 3 p.m. The “National Moment of Remembrance” resolution was passed in December 2000 and asks that at 3 p.m. local time, all Americans “voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a Moment of remembrance and respect, pausing from whatever they are doing for a moment of silence or listening to taps.”
If you didn’t take the time to honor America’s veterans who have passed during your day off Monday, however, we have good news for you: you don’t have to wait until Memorial Day 2018 to make up for it. It’s never the wrong time to remember and feel gratefulness to those who died to give us the country we have today. It’s never too late to reflect on their sacrifice – a sacrifice that gave you the ability to sleep in, jump in the pool, have a backyard cookout or potter in your garden.
We say thank you. We will never forget.
Memorial Day history taken from usmemorialday.org.
