In this crazy rush these days, the true meaning of Memorial Day is forgotten. It is a day for picnics, and bar-b-ques, days off from work, where people don't stop and member their family members who died fighting in the wars so that we can have our freedoms.
Memorial day was officially proclaimed on May 5, 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic. It was first observed on 30 May 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. The first state officially to recognize the holiday was New York in 1873. By 1890 all the northern states recognized the holiday. The South refused to acknowledge it, they had their own days to honor their dead, after WWI the holiday was changed to honor not only the Civil War dead, but people who died in any war. This is when the South started recognizing the holiday. It is now celebrated by almost all states on the last Monday in May. The south still celebrate the dead in the Confederate War on different days. Texas in Jan 19, April 26 in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi; May 10 in South Carolina; and June 3 in Louisiana and Tennessee.
Lets get back to the true meaning of Memorial Day. Stop and think about what your ancestors fought and died for. Lets remember Memorial Day with a thought for what we have now, the freedoms, and thank those who died to give them to us.
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