Memorial Day is right around the corner. Do you know the significance of this holiday? I’m sure many don’t. Memorial Day is a U.S. federal holiday on the last Monday of May (this year it is celebrated on May 31st, 2010). Memorial Day was first enacted to honor Union soldiers of the American Civil War.
“According to Professor David Blight of the Yale University History Department, the first memorial day was observed by formerly enslaved black people at the Washington Race Course (today the location of Hampton Park) in Charleston, South Carolina. The race course had been used as a temporary Confederate prison camp in 1865 as well as a mass grave for Union soldiers who died there. Immediately after the cessation of hostilities, formerly enslaved people exhumed the bodies from the mass grave and reinterred them properly with individual graves. They built a fence around the graveyard with an entry arch and declared it a Union graveyard. The work was completed in only ten days. On May 1, 1865, the Charleston newspaper reported that a crowd of up to ten thousand, mainly black residents, including 2800 children, processed to the location for a celebration which included sermons, singing, and a picnic on the grounds, thereby creating the first Decoration Day.” (Memorial Day-Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia)
Many people celebrate this holiday by visiting cemeteries and memorials. Another tradition is to fly the U.S. flag at half-staff from dawn until noon. Volunteers place American flags on each grave site at National Cemeteries.
Have you ever wondered why you receive poppies on Memorial Day? Members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars take donations for poppies in the days leading up to Memorial Day. The poppy's significance to Memorial Day is the result of the John McCrae poem "In Flanders Fields."
In addition to remembrance, Memorial Day is also a time for picnics, barbecues, family gatherings, and sporting events.