After the Civil War ended in 1865 and claimed more lives than any other conflict in the United States, Americans felt the need to honor the dead and honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice in war. Ta.
Already, wakes and memorial services were being held in individual towns and cities to honor the families of those killed in the war. According to History.com, some formerly enslaved South Carolinians held their first Memorial Day celebration just a month after the Confederate Army surrendered to the Union Army in 1865. That's what it means.
A more concerted effort was led by General John A. Logan, leader of the Northern Civil War Veterans Organization, who established a national day of honor for the fallen. Originally called “Decoration Day”, this day was an opportunity to decorate the graves of people buried in various church cemeteries and towns of the young country. May 30th was the date originally chosen because it was the time when the most flowers bloomed for the purpose of decorating graves.
But it wasn't until 1971 that Memorial Day became an official federal holiday, guaranteed by law to be celebrated on the last Monday in May to give workers a long weekend.
Today, Memorial Day honors all the men and women who sacrificed their lives in military service for their country. Since November 11, 2001, more than 7,000 U.S. service members and 8,000 contractors have died in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts and related combat, according to the Watson Institute at Brown University.
Memorial Day is one of two major federal holidays that honor the service of military personnel, the other being Veterans Day in November.
Washington, D.C. will celebrate Memorial Day with the annual parade that begins on Constitution Avenue at 2 p.m. At Arlington National Cemetery, a wreath-laying ceremony will be held on the 26th at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and there will also be an opportunity to lay flowers at the base of other headstones around the cemetery, where approximately 400,000 veterans and their families are buried.
There are dozens of national cemeteries across the country, where memorial ceremonies will also be held. To find an event near you, check out this event schedule maintained by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
This year's Memorial Day is Monday, May 27th. On this day and 11 other government-recognized federal holidays, all non-essential government employees are off work and most government offices are closed.
The next federal holiday is Juneteenth, Wednesday, June 19th. It is one of the new federal holidays designated by the president in 2021 and the first new holiday recognized since Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983.
Molly Weisner is a staff reporter at the Federal Times, covering labor, policy and contracts as it relates to government employees. She previously worked as a digital producer at USA Today and McClatchy, and as a copy editor at The New York Times. Molly majored in Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
