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Line 1: − + + + − General John Logan, National Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, officially proclaimed "Memorial Day" on May 5, 1886, and subsequently it was moved to May 30th, and then to the last Monday in May in order to ensure a three-day weekend. The first Memorial Day included the placement of flowers on the graves of [[Union]] and [[Confederate]] soldiers at [[Arlington National Cemetery]]. Prior to and during World War I, the South honored their veteran casualties on a different day. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Line 9:
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[[File:MemorialDay.jpg|right|250px]]
[[File:MemorialDay.jpg|right|250px]]
'''Memorial Day''' is a day of remembrance for those who have died while serving in the [[military]] of the [[United States of America]].
'''Memorial Day''' also called '''Decoration Day''' is a day of remembrance for those who have died while serving in the military of the United States.
==Origins==
By 1865 the practice of decorating soldiers' graves had become widespread in the North. General John Logan, National Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic--the society of Union Army veterans--called for all GAR posts to celebrate a "Decoration Day" on May 30, 1886. The northern states immediately adopted the holiday; Michigan, for example, made "Decoration Day" an official state holiday in 1871 and other northern states followed.
The preferred name gradually to "Memorial Day"; in 1971 the date was moved by Congress to the last Monday in May in order to ensure a three-day weekend.
The large cities paid much less attention; their populations did not much remember the Civil War since they grew primarily from European immigration after 1865. Memorial Day was a observed primarily by the the towns and small cities of the North as a sacred day when the war dead are mourned, the spirit of redemptive sacrifice is extolled and pledges to American ideals are renewed.
===South===
The Southern states had their own Memorial Day, ranging from April 26 to June 3.
Across the South associations were founded during and after the War Between the States to establish and care for permanent cemeteries for Confederate soldiers, organize commemorative ceremonies, and sponsor impressive monuments as a permanent way of remembering the Confederate tradition. Women provided the leadership in these associations, paving the way to establish themselves as capable of public leadership.
The earliest Confederate Memorial Day celebrations were simple, sober occasions for veterans and their families to honor the day and attend to local cemeteries. Around 1890, there was a shift from this consolatory emphasis on honoring specific soldiers to public commemoration of the Confederate "Lost cause." Changes in the ceremony's hymns and speeches reflect an evolution of the ritual into a symbol of cultural renewal and conservatism in the South.
The ceremonies and Memorial Day address at Gettysburg National Park were nationally famous, starting in 1868. However not until 1913, was a Southerners asked to give the main address. In July 1913, veterans of the United States and Confederate armies gathered in Gettysburg to commemorate the fifty-year anniversary of the Civil War's bloodiest and most famous battle. The four-day "Blue-Gray Reunion" featured parades, reenactments, and speeches from a host of dignitaries, including President [[Woodrow Wilson]], the first Southerner in the White House since the War. Congressman James Heflin of Alabama was given that honor of the main address. He was a famous orator; two of his best-known speeches were an endorsement of the Lincoln Memorial and his introduction of a bill to make Mother's Day a holiday, but his choice as Memorial Day speaker was met with criticism. He was opposed for his racism. But his speech was moderate, stressing national unity and goodwill, and the newspapers, including those who opposed his invitation to speak, praised him.
==Meaning==
Bellah (1967) argues that American “civil religion”, which has no association with any religious denomination or viewpoint, has incorporated Memorial Day as a sacred event. The obligation both collective and individual to carry out God's will on earth is a theme that lies deep in the American tradition, Bellah argues. With the Civil War, a new theme of death, sacrifice and rebirth enters the civil religion. Memorial Day gave ritual expression to these themes, integrating the local community into a sense of nationalism. The American civil religion in contrast to that of France was never anticlerical or militantly secular but instead borrowed selectively from the religious tradition in such a way that the average American saw no conflict between the two, thus mobilizing deep levels of personal motivation for the attainment of national goals.
The golden era of Memorial Day was the early 20th century, when aged veterans of the Civil War (who has been born about 1840) paraded through small towns and villages in a day of remembrance. Northern celebrations often included both black and white participants. Memorial Day and other celebratory events attended by black and white veterans frequently pointed to emancipation as a worthy result of the war.
By the 1960s the Civil War generation was gone and Memorial Day seemed to be fading, at least in liberal cities. More attention was paid to the Indianapolis auto race, which began in 1895. More people headed to the beaches and parks than to the monuments and cemeteries.
Conservatives revived the practice of honoring Memorial Day in the 1980s, under the leadership especially of President [[Ronald Reagan]].
==Arlington ceremonies==
A website devoted to Memorial Day explains:<ref>http://www.usmemorialday.org/backgrnd.html</ref>
A website devoted to Memorial Day explains:<ref>http://www.usmemorialday.org/backgrnd.html</ref>
[[File:Mem Day Graves.jpg|left|150px]]
[[File:Mem Day Graves.jpg|left|150px]]
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== Ronald Reagan Speaks Of Memorial Day ==
== Ronald Reagan Speaks Of Memorial Day ==
''Remarks at a Memorial Day Ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia May 26, 1986:''
''Remarks at a Memorial Day Ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia May 26, 1986:''
'''Thank all of you, and God bless you, and have a day full of memories.'''<ref>[http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/regan-052686.htm Reagan remarks at a Memorial Day Ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia May 26, 1986]</ref>}}
'''Thank all of you, and God bless you, and have a day full of memories.'''<ref>[http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/regan-052686.htm Reagan remarks at a Memorial Day Ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia May 26, 1986]</ref>}}
==Further reading==
* Albanese, Catherine. "Requiem for Memorial Day: Dissent in the Redeemer Nation," ''American Quarterly,'' Vol. 26, No. 4 (Oct., 1974), pp. 386-398 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2711654 in JSTOR]
* Bellah, Robert N. "Civil Religion in America." ''Daedalus'' 1967 96(1): 1-21. [http://www.questia.com/read/5012186009?title=Civil%20Religion%20in%20America online edition]
* Blight, David W. "Decoration Day: The Origins of Memorial Day in North and South" in Alice Fahs and Joan Waugh, eds. ''The Memory of the Civil War in American Culture'' (2004), [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst;jsessionid=L6pd2pVHvN4hNrwFhL4rdT3RWpyp8wJMS676zdVQdVhd8Wc0YGTn!-64009190?a=o&d=113423562 online edition] pp 94-129; the standard scholarly history
* Blight, David W. ''Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory'' (2000)
* Buck, Paul H. ''The Road to Reunion, 1865-1900'' (1937)
* Cherry, Conrad. "Two American Sacred Ceremonies: Their Implications for the Study of Religion in America," ''American Quarterly'', Vol. 21, No. 4 (Winter, 1969), pp. 739-754 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2711606 in JSTOR]
* Myers Robert J. "Memorial Day". Chapter 24 in ''Celebrations: The Complete Book of American Holidays''. (1972)
==References==
==References==