Advertisement. Advertise with us

Editorial

Decoration Day 101

In spite of the incessantly confusing and mildly annoying weather patterns we have been confronted with recently around here, we have come to Memorial Day weekend, reputedly the harbinger of summer, though we have hardly seen spring. It’s supposed to be warm and pleasant, a packed weekend filled with family and friends, parades, taps, salutes, speeches, frost-free gardens, canoe races, and tag sales.

This Monday is Memorial Day, a time to remember, mourn and celebrate those brave souls who gave their lives for our country. This day was not always recognized on the last Monday in May, nor has it always been called Memorial Day, nor has the exact origin, or creator, of the day been confirmed. A number of states and cities had early days of remembrance, largely marked by the decoration of graves. The first soldier killed in the Civil War, John Quincy Marr of Warrenton, Virginia, who fought and died in the Battle of Fairfax Courthouse on June 1, 1861, was honored with flowers on his grave, a practice not widely seen since ancient times. Later, in 1865, a parade of 10,000 people organized by formerly enslaved Black families honored 257 slain Union soldiers in Charleston, South Carolina. During the Civil War, a group of women known as the Ladies Memorial Association sought to establish an annual holiday to decorate the graves of soldiers with flowers throughout the South. Their request spread, through newspapers, to the North, where such a holiday was also trumpeted. By 1865, South Carolina, Virginia and Mississippi all had precedents for a form of Memorial Day.

The first national observance of Memorial Day, called Decoration Day at the time, came at the end of the Civil War when, on March 3, 1868, it was proclaimed a holiday by Commander in Chief John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic (not, as far as we know, a relation of our own illustrious, late, John G. Logan), to be celebrated on May 30 when there are abundant flowers, to honor Union soldiers. The South took offense—the North had appropriated their holiday—and, in 1874, the Georgia legislature proclaimed Confederate Memorial Day a public holiday. The date of the commemoration still swung from April to mid-June, and its founding place did as well: Macon and Columbus, Georgia; Richmond, Virginia; Boalsburg, Pennsylvania; Carbondale, Illinois and 20 more metropolises all claimed the day. To solve this, in 1966 President Lyndon Johnson, with or without reason, declared the birthplace of Memorial Day to be Waterloo, New York.

By the end of the 19th century Memorial Day ceremonies, still honoring specifically the 600,000 soldiers who fought and died in the Civil War, were being held on May 30 across the country, and the Army and Navy had proposed proper observance etiquette. Then, when the United States became embroiled in World War I, the day was expanded to honor those soldiers who died. This then came to include those who perished in all American wars: World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In 1967 the day was officially named Memorial Day, and in 1971 our Memorial Day (at times still called Decoration Day) became a national holiday. Its date was moved to the last Monday in May, making it, along with other holidays, a three-day weekend for federal employees. In December 2000, the U.S. Congress passed the “National Moment of Remembrance Act,” which encourages all of us to take a minute to remember, at 3 p.m. local time. Happy Memorial Day.

Posted

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Related Articles

Cooperstown Hosts 1st Pride Weekend

Cooperstown Hosts 1st Pride Weekend Oneonta Site of Block Party, Parade on Saturday, June 3 By WRILEY NELSONONEONTA Otsego Pride Alliance and local businesses will present Cooperstown’s first-ever Pride Weekend at the beginning of Pride Month. The festivities will start at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, June 1 with a Pride flag raising at Village Hall. Former Cooperstown Trustee MacGuire Benton will attend to kick off the weekend with a special performance by Cooperstown Central School’s Identity Alliance. Stagecoach Coffee will offer complimentary hot chocolate and coffee.…

Bliss: County Must Regulate, Oversee Any Housing of Migrants

Otsego Issues Executive Order Bliss: County Must Regulate, Oversee Any Housing of Migrants By CASPAR EWIGOTSEGO COUNTY On May 16, Otsego County joined the growing list of municipalities that have instituted limitations and conditions on the housing of migrants and asylum seekers entering the United States at its southern border. By adopting the declaration of an emergency set out in New York State’s Executive Order #28, and by issuing its own State of Emergency Declaration, Otsego County officials were empowered to issue Emergency Order #1, regulating the terms under which municipalities within the county could agree to house migrants. Since…

Bassett at 100: How Bassett Will Survive and Thrive

Bassett at 100 by Dr. Tommy Ibrahim How Bassett Will Survive and Thrive Dear Friends, Neighbors and Colleagues, As you are almost certainly aware, these are difficult times for health systems nationwide. For over a decade there has been a growing shortage of medical caregivers. Due to burnout following the COVID-19 pandemic, even more people have left clinical professions, and this is now a dire situation. The shortage is national and is especially pronounced in rural areas. The need for nurses, in particular, has driven hospitals like ours to rely on traveling nurse agencies to ensure there are enough staff…

Putting the Community Back Into the Newspaper

Now through March 30, new annual subscribers to “The Freeman’s Journal” and AllOtsego.com (or subscribers who have lapsed for two or more years) have an opportunity to help their choice of one of four Otsego County charitable organizations.

$5.00 of your subscription will be donated to the nonprofit of your choice:

Cooperstown Farmers’ Market, Cooperstown Food Pantry, Greater Oneonta Historical Society or Super Heroes Humane Society.