As a retired Army officer, I tend to get exercised at the widespread notion in the media and public commemorations of Memorial Day that this day is set aside to honor living veterans. It's not. That's done on Nov. 11, Veterans Day.
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| Flags at Arlington National Cemetery for Memorial Day |
Which is to say that Memorial Day is set aside to honor the memory of dead, not thank the living.
Memorial Day as we know it grew from diverse strands of decorating the graves of Civil War dead, begun in various towns just after the war ended. One tradition says that Southern women, mainly widows and bereaved mothers, began laying flowers on graves of Confederate dead before the war ended. Many people today think that this tradition continued as a separate Southern practice called Decoration Day, while it was the North that practiced Memorial Day.
While not exactly wrong, it's not altogether true. Beginning with a proclamation by Gen. John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, Memorial Day was first widespread observed in 1868 to honor the dead of the Civil War. Graves of both Union and Confederate dead at Arlington Cemetery were decorated with flowers, a practice at grave sites that dates at least to Roman times. Logan's General Order No. 11 stated in part:
The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet church-yard in the land. In this observance no form of ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.
By 1890, all the states of the former northern Union recognized the day, but it still honored only Civil War dead. Southern states did not join in observing this day, continuing to honor Confederate dead on other dates (not uniform across the South). People generally think that this day was called Decoration Day, but I cannot find any citation to confirm it. (The old CSA memorializing of Confederate dead is still on the books of many Old South states; it is June 3 here in Tennessee.)
After World War I, the dead of that war were added to the honor roll of Memorial Day, then almost immediately the dead of all American wars. At that, the Southern states joined in and there has been a unified observance since.
Memorial Day was generally an observance by the several states until President Lyndon B. Johnson issued a proclamation in 1966 designating May 30 as national Memorial Day. There the day remained until Congress passed legislation in 1971 called the National Holiday Act. The Act made Memorial Day and most other federal holidays always occur on a Monday. Whether this served to strip the day of its solemn meaning I'll leave it to you to evaluate.
Unlike Veterans Day, Nov. 11, Memorial Day is a unique American holiday. The other English-speaking nations observe Nov. 11, the date World War I ended, just as we do. However, the observance is called Remembrance Day in Canada, Australia, Bermuda and other lands of the former British Empire. New Zealand observes Nov. 11 in a low key way, the main observance being ANZAC Day, April 25. In the United Kingdom Nov. 11 is also commemorated in a low-key manner, the main observance being the second Sunday of November, called Remembrance Sunday.
In these nations, commemorations accomplish in one day what Memorial Day and Veterans Day do in America.
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3 comments:
Thank you for this excellent exposition on something that has bothered me for several years. The Memorial Day observances often have a point at which the veterans who are present are recognized. I think they would be the first to say that Memorial Day is not for them. It's for their friends who didn't come back, and that's why they are present.
However, I think the reason people take every opportunity to thank veterans is because of the guilt factor, a left-over from the Vietnam era. I was never one of those who mocked the military, but I know people who did. I try to compensate by thanking them when I can. I sometimes send notes to veterans on Veterans day. Like you said, that's their day.
May I thank you for an excellent blog.
David Blight places the origin of Decoration Day at May 1, 1865 in Charleston, SC. Ten thousand former slaves paraded to the racetrack which had been a P.O.W. camp where a couple hundred Union soldiers were buried with little care. The graves were cleaned-up and decorated with flowers. The symbolism caught the attention of the Northern press. Blight's book (Race and Reunion) doesn't say where the term "Decoration Day" originates, but it appears possible that this was a Northern descriptive.
What was interesting about Blight's book is that he examines how Memorial/Decoration day changed by the end of the century. Initially, the day was dominated by women with the events, including picnics, taking place at the cemetery. As veterans became more willing to speak of their experiences, events came to resemble reunions (sometimes blue and grey) at parks, meeting halls and hotel lobbies. Oratory, like Holmes' Soldier's Faith, extolled the virtues and experiences of combat. By WWI, sports and athletic events begin to be associated with the day, as the speeches extol these as sharing some of the manly virtues that shaped the veterans. A lot of athletic fields, with names like Soldier's Field (Harvard) are dedicated on this day.
So in a way, the distinction between a day of mourning and a day to honor veterans was lost in the nineteenth century )before separate days had been established). Though it was lost in the process of reconciliation from a national tragedy.
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