May 27, 2003
We had a holiday yesterday; Memorial Day. You guys enjoy your three days off? Anybody know what we were celebrating? Well, actually, we weren't supposed to be celebrating anything. Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation's service. It was called Decoration Day, because families and friends and those who just care, go to the cemeteries and decorate the graves of those who died for us in war. We're not really sure where it began, probably in a number of places. A hymn published in 1867 entitled "Kneel Where Our Loved Ones Are Sleeping" by Nella L. Sweet is dedicated "To The Ladies of the South who are Decorating the Graves of the Confederate Dead". Memorial Day was first officially proclaimed on May 5, 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, and was first observed on May 30, 1868 with the placing of flowers on the graves of union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. It is now celebrated in almost every state on the last Monday in May, according to the National Holiday Act passed by Congress in 1971.
Since the late 1950's on the Thursday before Memorial Day, the 1,200 soldiers of the 3rd U.S. Infantry place small American flags at each of the more than 260,000 gravestones at Arlington National Cemetery. They then patrol 24 hours per day during the weekend to ensure that each flag remains standing.
Since 1998, on the Saturday before the observed day for Memorial Day, the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of Fredericksberg and Spotsylvania National Military Park place a candle at each of approximately 15,300 grave sites of soldiers buried there.
But most Americans have forgotten the meaning and traditions of Memorial Day.
Since the Revolutionary War, 1,140,290 men and women have died fighting in defense of our country and its freedoms.
How many of you knew that? Let's bow our heads in a moment of silence
for those who gave their lives so that we might be here.
Thank you. And may God be with you.
(Adapted from "Memorial Day History" by David Merchant, 1994
(updated 13 May 203)