Memorial Day - Wikipedia

Federal holiday in the United States For other uses, see Memorial Day (disambiguation). "Decoration Day" redirects here. For other uses, see Decoration Day (disambiguation).

Memorial Day
Arlington National Cemetery graves decorated with flags during Memorial Day weekend
Observed by	United States
Type	Federal
Significance	Honors U.S. military personnel who died in service
Observances	Decoration of military graves with American flags
Date	Last Monday in May
2025 date	May 26
2026 date	May 25
2027 date	May 31  (2027-05-31)
2028 date	May 29  (2028-05-29)
Frequency	Annual
First time	May 30, 1868

Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States for mourning the U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces.[1][2] It is observed on the last Monday of May. It is also considered to be the unofficial beginning of summer.[3]

Memorial Day is a time for visiting cemeteries and memorials to mourn the military personnel who died in the line of duty. Volunteers will place American flags on the graves of those military personnel in national cemeteries.[4]

The first national observance of what would become Memorial Day occurred on May 30, 1868.[5] Then known as Decoration Day, the holiday was proclaimed by Commander-in-Chief John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic – a fraternal organization of veterans – to honor Union soldiers who had died in the American Civil War.[6] This national observance followed the example of many local observances which were begun between the end of the Civil War and Logan's declaration. Many cities and people have claimed to be the first to observe it, however, the National Cemetery Administration, a division of the Department of Veterans Affairs, credits Mary Ann Williams of the Ladies Memorial Association of Columbus, Georgia with originating the idea of an annual date to decorate the graves of Civil War veterans with flowers.[7]

Official recognition as a holiday spread among the states, beginning with New York in 1873.[7] By 1890, every union state had adopted it. The world wars turned it into a day of remembrance for all members of the U.S. military who fought and died in service. In 1968, Congress changed its observance to the last Monday in May, and in 1971 standardized its name as "Memorial Day.” Two other days celebrate those who have served or are serving in the U.S. military: Armed Forces Day, which is earlier in May, a ceremonial U.S. day of commemoration for honoring those currently serving in the armed forces, and Veterans Day on November 11, a legal holiday which honors all those who have served in the United States Armed Forces.[8]

Origins

[edit]

A variety of cities and people have claimed origination of Memorial Day.[5][9][10][11] In some such cases, the claims relate to documented events, occurring before or after the Civil War. Others may stem from general traditions of decorating soldiers' graves with flowers, rather than specific events leading to the national proclamation.[12] Soldiers' graves were decorated in the U.S. before[13] and during the American Civil War. Other claims may be less respectable, appearing to some researchers as taking credit without evidence, while erasing better-evidenced events or connections.[14][7]

Precedents in the South

[edit]

Warrenton, Virginia

[edit]

On June 3, 1861, Warrenton, Virginia, was the location of the first Civil War soldier's grave to be decorated, according to an article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch in 1906.[15] This decoration was for the funeral of the first soldier killed during the Civil War, John Quincy Marr, who died on June 1, 1861, during a skirmish at the Battle of Fairfax Courthouse in Virginia.[16]

Jackson, Mississippi

[edit]

On April 26, 1865, in Jackson, Mississippi, Sue Landon Vaughan decorated the graves of Confederate and Union soldiers according to her account. The first reference to this event however did not appear until many years later.[17] Mention of the observance is inscribed on the southeast panel of the Confederate Monument in Jackson, erected in 1891.[18] Vaughan's account is contradicted by contemporary sources.[19]

Charleston, South Carolina

[edit]

On May 1, 1865, in Charleston, South Carolina, the recently freed Black population held a parade of 10,000 people to honor 257 dead Union soldiers. The soldiers had been buried in a mass grave at the Washington Race Course, having died at the Confederate prison camp located there. After the city fell, the freed Black population unearthed and properly buried the soldiers, placing flowers at their graves. The event was reported contemporaneously in the Charleston Daily Courier and the New-York Tribune.[20] Historian David Blight has called this commemoration the first Memorial Day. However, no direct link has been established between this event and General John Logan's 1868 proclamation for a national holiday.[21][22][14]

Columbus, Georgia

[edit]

. . . [W]e can keep alive the memory of debt we owe them by dedicating at least one day in the year, by embellishing their humble graves with flowers, therefore we beg the assistance of the press and the ladies throughout the South to help us in the effort to set apart a certain day to be observed, from the Potomac to the Rio Grande and be handed down through time as a religious custom of the country, to wreathe the graves of our martyred dead with flowers. . . Let the soldiers’ graves, for that day at least, be the Southern Mecca, to whose shrine her sorrowing women, like pilgrims, may annually bring their grateful hearts and floral offerings. . .

—Mary Ann Williams, March 11, 1866[19]

The National Cemetery Administration, a division of the Department of Veterans Affairs,[7] and scholars attribute the beginning of a Memorial Day practice in the South to a group of women of Columbus, Georgia.[17][23][24][25][26][27][28] The women were the Ladies Memorial Association of Columbus. They were represented by Mary Ann Williams (Mrs. Charles J. Williams) who as association secretary wrote an open letter to the press on March 11, 1866[19] asking for assistance in establishing an annual holiday to decorate the graves of soldiers throughout the South.[29] The letter was reprinted in several southern states and the plans were noted in newspapers in the North. The date of April 26 was chosen, which corresponded with the end date of the war with the surrender agreement between Generals Johnston and Sherman in 1865.[19]

The holiday was observed in Atlanta, Augusta, Macon, Columbus and elsewhere in Georgia as well as Montgomery, Alabama; Memphis, Tennessee; Louisville, Kentucky; New Orleans, Louisiana; Jackson, Mississippi, and across the South.[17] In some cities, mostly in Virginia, other dates in May and June were observed. General John Logan commented on the observances in a speech to veterans on July 4, 1866, in Salem, Illinois.[30] After General Logan's General Order No. 11 to the Grand Army of the Republic to observe May 30, 1868, the earlier version of the holiday began to be referred to as Confederate Memorial Day.[17]

Columbus, Mississippi

[edit]

Following Mary William's call for assistance,[7] four women of Columbus, Mississippi a day early on April 25, 1866, gathered together at Friendship Cemetery to decorate the graves of the Confederate soldiers. They also felt moved to honor the Union soldiers buried there, and to note the grief of their families, by decorating their graves as well. The story of their gesture of humanity and reconciliation is held by some writers as the inspiration of the original Memorial Day.[31][32][33][34]

Other Southern precedents

[edit]

According to the United States Library of Congress, "Southern women decorated the graves of soldiers even before the Civil War’s end. Records show that by 1865, Mississippi, Virginia, and South Carolina all had precedents for Memorial Day."[35] The earliest Southern Memorial Day celebrations were simple, somber occasions for veterans and their families to honor the dead and tend to local cemeteries.[36] In following years, the Ladies' Memorial Association and other groups increasingly focused rituals on preserving Confederate culture and the Lost Cause of the Confederacy narrative.[37]

Precedents in the North

[edit]

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

[edit]

The 1863 cemetery dedication at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, included a ceremony of commemoration at the graves of dead soldiers. Some have therefore claimed that President Abraham Lincoln was the founder of Memorial Day.[38] However, Chicago journalist Lloyd Lewis tried to make the case that it was Lincoln's funeral that spurred the soldiers' grave decorating that followed.[39]

Boalsburg, Pennsylvania

[edit]

On July 4, 1864, ladies decorated soldiers' graves according to local historians in Boalsburg, Pennsylvania.[40] Boalsburg promotes itself as the birthplace of Memorial Day.[41] However, no published reference to this event has been found earlier than the printing of the History of the 148th Pennsylvania Volunteers in 1904.[42] In a footnote to a story about her brother, Mrs. Sophie (Keller) Hall described how she and Emma Hunter decorated the grave of Emma's father, Reuben Hunter, and then the graves of all soldiers in the cemetery. The original story did not account for Reuben Hunter's death occurring two months later on September 19, 1864. It also did not mention Mrs. Elizabeth Myers as one of the original participants. A bronze statue of all three women gazing upon Reuben Hunter's grave now stands near the entrance to the Boalsburg Cemetery. Although July 4, 1864, was a Monday, the town now claims that the original decoration was on one of the Sundays in October 1864.[43]

National Decoration Day

[edit]

... Let us then gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with the choicest flowers of Springtime; let us raise above them the dear old flag they saved from dishonor; let us in this solemn presence renew our pledges to aid and assist those whom they have left among us as a sacred charge upon a Nation's gratitude—the soldiers' and sailors' widow and orphan.

—John A. Logan, May 5, 1868[44]

On May 5, 1868, General John A. Logan issued a proclamation calling for "Decoration Day" to be observed annually and nationwide; he was commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), an organization of and for Union Civil War veterans founded in Decatur, Illinois.[45] With his proclamation, Logan adopted the Memorial Day practice that had begun in the Southern states two years earlier.[17][29][19][46][47][48][49] The northern states quickly adopted the holiday. In 1868, memorial events were held in 183 cemeteries in 27 states, and 336 in 1869.[50]: 99–100  One author claims that the date was chosen because it was not the anniversary of any particular battle.[51] Logan's wife noted that the date was chosen because it was the optimal date for flowers to be in bloom in the North.[19][52]

State holiday

[edit]

In 1873, New York made Decoration Day an official state holiday and by 1890, every northern state had followed suit.[7] There was no standard program for the ceremonies, but they were typically sponsored by the Women's Relief Corps, the women's auxiliary of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), which had 100,000 members. By 1870, the remains of nearly 300,000 Union dead had been reinterred in 73 national cemeteries, located near major battlefields and thus mainly in the South. The most famous are Gettysburg National Cemetery in Pennsylvania and Arlington National Cemetery, near Washington, D.C.[53]

Waterloo proclamation

[edit]

On May 26, 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson designated an "official" birthplace of the holiday by signing the presidential proclamation naming Waterloo, New York, as the holder of the title. This action followed House Concurrent Resolution 587, in which the 89th Congress had officially recognized that the patriotic tradition of observing Memorial Day had begun one hundred years prior in Waterloo, New York.[54] The legitimacy of this claim has been called into question by several scholars.[55]

Early national history

[edit]

In April 1865, following Lincoln's assassination, commemorations were extensive. The more than 600,000 soldiers of both sides who fought and died in the Civil War meant that burial and memorialization took on new cultural significance. Under the leadership of women during the war, an increasingly formal practice of decorating graves had taken shape. In 1865, the federal government also began creating the United States National Cemetery System for the Union war dead.[56]

By the 1880s, ceremonies were becoming more consistent across geography as the GAR provided handbooks that presented specific procedures, poems, and Bible verses for local post commanders to utilize in planning the local event. Historian Stuart McConnell reports:[57]

on the day itself, the post assembled and marched to the local cemetery to decorate the graves of the fallen, an enterprise meticulously organized months in advance to assure that none were missed. Finally came a simple and subdued graveyard service involving prayers, short patriotic speeches, and music ... and at the end perhaps a rifle salute.

Confederate Memorial Day

[edit] Main article: Confederate Memorial Day

In 1868, some Southern public figures began adding the label "Confederate" to their commemorations and claimed that Northerners had appropriated the holiday.[58][17][59] The first official celebration of Confederate Memorial Day as a public holiday occurred in 1874, following a proclamation by the Georgia legislature.[60] By 1916, ten states celebrated it, on June 3, the birthday of CSA President Jefferson Davis.[60] Other states chose late April dates, or May 10, commemorating Davis' capture.[60]

The Ladies' Memorial Association played a key role in using Memorial Day rituals to preserve Confederate culture.[37] Various dates ranging from April 25 to mid-June were adopted in different Southern states. Across the South, associations were founded, many by women, to establish and care for permanent cemeteries for the Confederate dead, organize commemorative ceremonies, and sponsor appropriate monuments as a permanent way of remembering the Confederate dead. The most important of these was the United Daughters of the Confederacy, which grew throughout the South.[36] 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. By 1913, David Blight argues, the theme of American nationalism shared equal time with the Confederate.[50]: 265 

Renaming

[edit]

By the 20th century, various Union memorial traditions, celebrated on different days, merged, and Memorial Day eventually extended to honor all Americans who fought and died while in the U.S. military service.[1] Indiana from the 1860s to the 1920s saw numerous debates on how to expand the celebration. It was a favorite lobbying activity of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). An 1884 GAR handbook explained that Memorial Day was "the day of all days in the G.A.R. Calendar" in terms of mobilizing public support for pensions. It advised family members to "exercise great care" in keeping the veterans sober.[61]: 352 

Memorial Day speeches became an occasion for veterans, politicians, and ministers to commemorate the Civil War and, at first, to rehash the "atrocities" of the enemy. They mixed religion and celebratory nationalism, allowing Americans to make sense of their history in terms of sacrifice for a better nation. People of all religious beliefs joined, including German and Irish soldiers – ethnic minorities who at the time faced discrimination – who had become true Americans in the "baptism of blood" on the battlefield.[62]

In the national capital in 1913 the four-day "Blue-Gray Reunion" featured parades, re-enactments, and speeches from a host of dignitaries, including President Woodrow Wilson, the first Southerner elected to the White House since the War. James Heflin of Alabama gave the main address. Heflin was a noted orator; his choice as Memorial Day speaker was criticized, as he was opposed for his support of segregation; however, his speech was moderate in tone and stressed national unity and good will, winning him praise from newspapers.[63]

The name "Memorial Day", which was first used in 1882, gradually became more common than "Decoration Day" after World War II[64] but was not declared the official name by federal law until 1967.[65] On June 28, 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which moved four holidays, including Memorial Day, from their traditional dates to a specified Monday in order to create a three-day weekend.[66] The change moved Memorial Day from its traditional May 30 date to the last Monday in May. The law took effect at the federal level in 1971.[66]

In 1913, an Indiana veteran complained that younger people born since the war had a "tendency ... to forget the purpose of Memorial Day and make it a day for games, races, and revelry, instead of a day of memory and tears".[61]: 362  In 1911, the scheduling of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway car race, later named the Indianapolis 500, was vehemently opposed by the increasingly elderly GAR. The state legislature in 1923 rejected holding the race on the holiday. However, the new American Legion and local officials wanted the race to continue, so Governor Warren McCray vetoed the bill and the race went on.[61]: 376 

Civil religious holiday

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Memorial Day endures as a holiday which most businesses observe because it marks the unofficial beginning of summer. (Labor Day is the unofficial end of summer.) The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW) advocated returning to the original date. The VFW stated in 2002:[67]

Changing the date merely to create three-day weekends has undermined the very meaning of the day. No doubt, this has contributed a lot to the general public's nonchalant observance of Memorial Day.

In 2000, Congress passed the National Moment of Remembrance Act, asking people to stop and remember at 3:00 pm.[68] On Memorial Day, the flag of the United States is raised briskly to the top of the staff and then solemnly lowered to the half-staff position, where it remains only until noon.[69] It is then raised to full-staff for the remainder of the day.[70] In commemoration ceremonies the Taps are played on the bugle. The National Memorial Day Concert takes place on the west lawn of the United States Capitol.[71]

Scholars,[72][73][74][75] following the lead of sociologist Robert Bellah, often make the argument that the United States has a secular "civil religion"—one with no association with any religious denomination or viewpoint—that has incorporated Memorial Day as a sacred event. 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; in contrast to Britain, it was not tied to a specific denomination, such as the Church of England. The Americans borrowed from different religious traditions so that the average American saw no conflict between the two, and deep levels of personal motivation were aligned with attaining national goals.[76]

Parades

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Since 1867, Brooklyn, New York, has held an annual Memorial Day parade which it claims to be the nation's oldest. Grafton, West Virginia, and Ironton, Ohio have also had an ongoing parade since 1868. However, the Memorial Day parade in Rochester, Wisconsin, predates both the Doylestown and the Grafton parades by one year (1867).[77][78]

Poppies

[edit] Main article: Remembrance poppy

In 1915, following the Second Battle of Ypres, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, a physician with the Canadian Expeditionary Force, wrote the poem "In Flanders Fields". Its opening lines refer to the fields of poppies that grew among the soldiers' graves in Flanders.[79] Inspired by the poem, YWCA worker Moina Michael attended a YWCA Overseas War Secretaries' conference three years later wearing a silk poppy pinned to her coat and distributed over two dozen more to others present. The National American Legion adopted the poppy as its official symbol of remembrance in 1920.[80]

Observance dates (1971–2037)

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Year												Memorial Day
1971	1976	1982	1993	1999	2004	2010	2021	2027	2032	May 31 (week 22)
1977	1983	1988	1994	2005	2011	2016	2022	2033	May 30 (week 22)
1972	1978	1989	1995	2000	2006	2017	2023	2028	2034	May 29 (week 22)
1973	1979	1984	1990	2001	2007	2012	2018	2029	2035	May 28 (week 22)
1974	1985	1991	1996	2002	2013	2019	2024	2030	May 27 (common year week 21, leap year week 22)
1975	1980	1986	1997	2003	2008	2014	2025	2031	2036	May 26 (week 21)
1981	1987	1992	1998	2009	2015	2020	2026	2037	May 25 (week 21)

Related traditions

[edit] Main article: Decoration Day (tradition)

Decoration Days in Southern Appalachia and Liberia are a tradition which arose by the 19th century. Decoration practices are localized and unique to individual families, cemeteries, and communities, but common elements that unify the various Decoration Day practices are thought to represent syncretism of predominantly Christian cultures in 19th century Southern Appalachia with pre-Christian influences from Scotland, Ireland, and African cultures. Appalachian and Liberian cemetery decoration traditions are thought to have more in common with one another than with United States Memorial Day traditions which are focused on honoring the military dead.[81] Appalachian and Liberian cemetery decoration traditions pre-date the United States Memorial Day holiday.[82]

According to scholars Alan and Karen Jabbour, "the geographic spread ... from the Smokies to northeastern Texas and Liberia, offer strong evidence that the southern Decoration Day originated well back in the nineteenth century. The presence of the same cultural tradition throughout the Upland South argues for the age of the tradition, which was carried westward (and eastward to Africa) by nineteenth-century migration and has survived in essentially the same form till the present."[45]

While these customs may have inspired in part rituals to honor military dead like Memorial Day, numerous differences exist between Decoration Day customs and Memorial Day, including that the date is set differently by each family or church for each cemetery to coordinate the maintenance, social, and spiritual aspects of decoration.[81][83][84]

In popular culture

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Films

[edit]

• In Memorial Day, a 2012 war film starring James Cromwell, Jonathan Bennett, and John Cromwell, a character recalls and relives memories of World War II.[citation needed]

Music

[edit]

• American composer Charles Ives titled the second movement of his A Symphony: New England Holidays, "Decoration Day".[85]

Poetry

[edit]

Poems commemorating Memorial Day include:

• Francis M. Finch's "The Blue and the Gray" (1867)[86]
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Decoration Day" (1882)[87]
• Michael Anania's "Memorial Day" (1994)[88]

See also

[edit]

United States

[edit]

• A Great Jubilee Day, first held the last Monday in May 1783 (American Revolutionary War)
• Armed Forces Day, third Saturday in May, a more narrowly observed remembrance honoring those currently serving in the U.S. military
• Armistice Day, November 11, the original name of Veterans Day in the United States
• Confederate Memorial Day, observed on various dates in many states in the South in memory of those killed fighting for the Confederacy during the American Civil War
• Memorial Day massacre of 1937, May 30, held to remember demonstrators shot by police in Chicago
• Nora Fontaine Davidson, credited with the first Memorial Day ceremony in Petersburg, Virginia
• Patriot Day, September 11, in memory of people killed in the September 11 attacks
• Remembrance Day at the Gettysburg Battlefield, an annual honoring of Civil War dead held near the anniversary of the Gettysburg Address
• United States military casualties of war
• Veterans Day, November 11, honoring American military veterans, both alive and deceased

Other countries

[edit]

• ANZAC Day, April 25, an analogous observance in Australia and New Zealand
• Armistice Day, November 11, the original name of Veterans Day in the United States and Remembrance Day in Canada, the United Kingdom, and other Commonwealth nations
• Commemoration Day of Fallen Soldiers ("Kaatuneitten muistopäivä"), a day observed in Finland on the third Sunday of May for the soldiers killed in the Finnish Civil War and World War II
• Decoration Day (Canada), a Canadian holiday that recognizes veterans of Canada's military which has largely been eclipsed by the similar Remembrance Day
• Heroes' Day, various dates in various countries recognizing national heroes
• International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers, May 29, international observance recognizing United Nations peacekeepers
• Memorial Day (South Korea), June 6, the day to commemorate the men and women who died while in military service during the Korean War and other significant wars or battles
• Remembrance Day, November 11, a similar observance in Canada, the United Kingdom, and many other Commonwealth nations originally marking the end of World War I
• Remembrance of the Dead ("Dodenherdenking"), May 4, a similar observance in the Netherlands
• Victoria Day, a Canadian holiday on the last Monday before May 25 each year, lacks the military memorial aspects of Memorial Day but serves a similar function as marking the start of cultural summer
• Volkstrauertag ("People's Mourning Day"), a similar observance in Germany usually in November
• Yom Hazikaron (Israeli memorial day), the day before Independence Day (Israel), around Iyar 4

References

[edit]

Notes

1. ^ a b "Memorial Day". United States Department of Veterans Affairs. Archived from the original on May 27, 2010. Retrieved May 28, 2010.
2. ^ 36 U.S.C. § 116
3. ^ "Memorial Day". History.com. May 27, 2023. Archived from the original on December 21, 2019. Retrieved January 2, 2020.
4. ^ Yan, Holly (May 26, 2016). "Memorial Day 2016: What You Need to Know". CNN. Archived from the original on May 30, 2016. Retrieved May 31, 2016.
5. ^ a b "Today in History – May 30". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Archived from the original on May 25, 2019. Retrieved May 30, 2022.
6. ^ "Memorial Day Order". Cem.va.gov. National Cemetery Administration. Archived from the original on May 29, 2022. Retrieved May 30, 2022.
7. ^ a b c d e f "Memorial Day History". National Cemetery Administration of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. May 29, 2023. Archived from the original on May 28, 2023. Retrieved May 29, 2023.
8. ^ Kickler, Sarah (May 28, 2012). "Memorial Day vs. Veterans Day". Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on October 21, 2013. Retrieved April 7, 2014.
9. ^ "Memorial Day History". U.S. Department of Veterans' Affairs. Archived from the original on May 27, 2022. Retrieved October 30, 2019.
10. ^ Klein, Christopher (May 25, 2016). "Where Did Memorial Day Originate?". History.com. Archived from the original on May 30, 2022. Retrieved May 30, 2022.
11. ^ "The Center for Civil War Research". www.civilwarcenter.olemiss.edu. Archived from the original on May 19, 2022. Retrieved May 30, 2022.
12. ^ L'Hommedieu Gardiner, Mary (1842). "The Ladies Garland". J. Libby. p. 296. Archived from the original on September 19, 2017. Retrieved May 31, 2014 – via Google Books.
13. ^ In 1817, for example, a writer in the Analectic Magazine of Philadelphia urged the decoration of patriot's graves. E.J., "The Soldier's Grave", in The Analectic Magazine (1817), Vol. 10, 264.
14. ^ a b "The Origins of Memorial Day" Archived January 19, 2022, at the Wayback Machine Snopes.com, May 25, 2018
15. ^ "Times-Dispatch". Perseus.tufts.edu. July 15, 1906. Archived from the original on July 2, 2014. Retrieved April 7, 2014.
16. ^ Poland Jr., Charles P. The Glories Of War: Small Battles And Early Heroes Of 1861. Bloomington, IN (2006), 42.
17. ^ a b c d e f Bellware, Daniel (2014). The Genesis of the Memorial Day holiday in America. Columbus State University. ISBN 9780692292259. OCLC 898066352.
18. ^ "Mississippi Confederate Monument – Jackson, MS". WayMarking.com. Archived from the original on October 30, 2019. Retrieved October 30, 2019.
19. ^ a b c d e f Gardiner, Richard; Jones, P. Michael; Bellware, Daniel (Spring–Summer 2018). "The Emergence and Evolution of Memorial Day". Journal of America's Military Past. 43–2 (137): 19–37. Archived from the original on October 27, 2020. Retrieved May 25, 2020.
20. ^ Roos, Dave (May 24, 2019). "One of the Earliest Memorial Day Ceremonies Was Held by Freed African Americans". History.com. Archived from the original on May 30, 2022. Retrieved May 30, 2022.
21. ^ Blight, David W. "Lecture: To Appomattox and Beyond: The End of the War and a Search for Meanings, Overview". Oyc.Yale.edu. Archived from the original on May 30, 2014. Retrieved May 31, 2014. Professor Blight closes his lecture with a description of the first Memorial Day, celebrated by African Americans in Charleston, SC 1865.
22. ^ David Blight, cited by Campbell Robertson, "Birthplace of Memorial Day? That Depends Where You're From", The New York Times, May 28, 2012 Archived June 17, 2017, at the Wayback Machine – Blight quote from 2nd web page: "He has called that the first Memorial Day, as it predated most of the other contenders, though he said he has no evidence that it led to General Logan's call for a national holiday."
23. ^ Gallagher, Gary W.; Nolan, Alan T. (2000). The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History. Indiana University Press. ISBN 9780253109026. Retrieved May 25, 2020 – via Google Books.
24. ^ Johnson, Kristina Dunn (2009). No Holier Spot of Ground: Confederate Monuments & Cemeteries of South Carolina. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9781614232827. Retrieved May 25, 2020 – via Google Books.
25. ^ Kammen, Michael (2011). Mystic Chords of Memory: The Transformation of Tradition in American Culture. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN 9780307761408. Retrieved May 25, 2020 – via Google Books.
26. ^ English, Tom (May 22, 2015). "A 'complicated' journey: The story of Logan and Memorial Day". The Southern. Archived from the original on May 31, 2024. Retrieved May 25, 2020.
27. ^ Logan, Mrs. John A. (1913). Mrs. Logan's Memoirs. p. 246. Retrieved April 7, 2014 – via Google Books.
28. ^ "Birthplace of Memorial Day? That Depends Where You're From". The New York Times. May 27, 2012. Archived from the original on June 17, 2017. Retrieved February 27, 2017.
29. ^ a b Jones, Michael (May 23, 2015). "Memorial Day's Roots Traced to Georgia". Northwest Herald. Archived from the original on June 3, 2016. Retrieved May 10, 2016.
30. ^ Brockell, Gillian (May 27, 2019). "Memorial Day's Confederate Roots: Who Really Invented the Holiday?". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on June 9, 2019. Retrieved October 9, 2019.
31. ^ Fallows, Deborah (May 23, 2014). "A Real Story of Memorial Day". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on June 13, 2017. Retrieved January 21, 2020.
32. ^ Adams, Will (May 25, 2017). "Decoration Day & The Origins Of Memorial Day". RelicRecord. Archived from the original on June 13, 2020. Retrieved January 21, 2020.
33. ^ "Confederate Decoration Day Historical Marker". Hmdb.org. Archived from the original on June 12, 2020. Retrieved January 21, 2020.
34. ^ "MSU Library, Ole Miss Anthropologist, Local Historian Search for Union Graves". The Clarion Ledger. Archived from the original on May 31, 2024. Retrieved January 21, 2020.
35. ^ "Today in History – May 30 – Memorial Day". United States Library of Congress. Archived from the original on May 25, 2019. Retrieved May 28, 2019.
36. ^ a b University of Michigan; EBSCO Publishing (Firm) (2000). America, history and life. Clio Press. p. 190.
37. ^ a b Cox, Karen L. (2003). Dixie's Daughters: The United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Preservation of Confederate Culture. University Press of Florida. p. 11. ISBN 978-0813031330.
38. ^ "Lincoln's Message to Today", Trenton (NJ) Evening Times, May 30, 1913.
39. ^ Lloyd, Lewis (1941). Myths after Lincoln. New York: Press of the Readers Club. pp. 309–310.[ISBN missing]
40. ^ "Sophie Keller Hall, in The Story of Our Regiment: A History of the 148th Pennsylvania Vols., ed. J.W. Muffly (Des Moines: The Kenyon Printing & Mfg. Co., 1904), quoted in editor's note, p. 45". Civilwarcenter.olemiss.edu. Archived from the original on May 31, 2024. Retrieved May 28, 2012.
41. ^ "Boalsburg, PA, birthplace of Memorial Day". Boalsburg.com. March 26, 1997. Archived from the original on March 4, 2012. Retrieved May 28, 2012.
42. ^ Muffly, Joseph W. (1994) [Originally published 1904]. The Story of Our Regiment: A History of the 148th Pennsylvania Vols. Butternut and Blue. p. 45. ISBN 0935523391. OCLC 33463683.
43. ^ Flynn, Michael (2010). "Boalsburg and the Origin of Memorial Day". Pennsylvania Center for the Book. Archived from the original on August 30, 2019. Retrieved October 30, 2019.
44. ^ Woodman, Wlliam (1891). "Decoration Day Exercise". Common School Education and Teachers World. Bemis Publishing Company. p. 346.
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Further reading

• Albanese, Catherine. "Requiem for Memorial Day: Dissent in the Redeemer Nation", American Quarterly, Vol. 26, No. 4 (Oct. 1974), pp. 386–398 in JSTOR Archived January 12, 2017, at the Wayback Machine
• Bellah, Robert N. "Civil Religion in America". Daedalus 1967 96(1): 1–21. 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), online edition pp. 94–129; the standard scholarly history
• Buck, Paul H. The Road to Reunion, 1865–1900 (1937) [ISBN missing]
• 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 in JSTOR Archived January 12, 2017, at the Wayback Machine
• Dennis, Matthew. Red, White, and Blue Letter Days: An American Calendar (2002) [ISBN missing]
• Jabbour, Alan, and Karen Singer Jabbour. Decoration Day in the Mountains: Traditions of Cemetery Decoration in the Southern Appalachians (University of North Carolina Press; 2010) [ISBN missing]
• Myers, Robert J. "Memorial Day". Chapter 24 in Celebrations: The Complete Book of American Holidays. (1972) [ISBN missing]
• Schauffler, Robert Haven (1911). Memorial Day: Its Celebration, Spirit, and Significance as Related in Prose and Verse, with a Non-sectional Anthology of the Civil War. BiblioBazaar reprint 2010. ISBN 9781176839045. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)

External links

[edit] Wikimedia Commons has media related to Memorial Day. Wikiquote has quotations related to Memorial Day. Look up Memorial Day in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Memorial Day".

• 36 USC 116. Memorial Day (designation law)

v t e Federal holidays in the United States
Current	New Year's Day Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. Washington's Birthday Memorial Day Juneteenth Independence Day Labor Day Columbus Day Veterans Day Thanksgiving Day Christmas Day
Proposed	VE Day (1945) Victory Day (1950) Flag Day (1950) Election Day/Democracy Day (1993, 2005, 2014) Malcolm X Day (1993–1994) Cesar Chavez Day (2008) Susan B. Anthony Day (2011) Native American Day (2013) Patriot Day (2021) Rosa Parks Day (2021)
Related	Uniform Monday Holiday Act

v t e Holidays, observances, and celebrations in the United States
January	New Year's Day (federal) Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. (federal) Birthday of Eugenio María de Hostos (PR) Confederate Heroes Day (TX) Eve of Three Kings' Day (PR, religious) Feast of Epiphany / Feast of Theophany (religious) Fred Korematsu Day (AZ, CA, FL, HI, VA) Idaho Human Rights Day (ID) Inauguration Day (federal quadrennial) Kansas Day (KS) Makar Sankranti / Pongal (religious) Robert E. Lee Day (FL) Stephen Foster Memorial Day (36) National Religious Freedom Day The Eighth (LA) Three Kings' Day (PR, VI, religious) World Religion Day (religious)
January–February	Chinese New Year / Lunar New Year (NY, cultural, religious) Vasant Panchami (religious)
FebruaryAmerican Heart MonthBlack History Month	Washington's Birthday (federal) Valentine's Day Birthday of Luis Muñoz Marín (PR) Candlemas (religious) Charles Darwin Day / Darwin Day (CA, DE) Day of Remembrance (CA, OR, WA, cultural) Georgia Day (GA) Groundhog Day Imbolc (religious) Lincoln's Birthday (CA, CT, IL, IN, MO, NY, WV) National Girls and Women in Sports Day National Freedom Day (36) Nirvana Day (religious) Presentation of Our Lord to the Temple (religious) Promised Reformer Day (religious) Ronald Reagan Day (CA) Rosa Parks Day (CA, MO) Saviours' Day (religious) Susan B. Anthony Day (CA, FL, NY, WI, WV, proposed federal) Tu B’shvat (religious)
February–March	Mardi Gras Ash Wednesday (PR, religious) Carnival (PR, VI, religious) Clean Monday (religious) Courir de Mardi Gras (religious) Intercalary Days (religious) Mahashivaratri (religious) Purim (religious) Shrove Tuesday (religious) Super Tuesday
MarchIrish-American Heritage MonthColon Cancer Awareness MonthWomen's History Month	Saint Patrick's Day (ethnic) Spring break (week) Annunciation of the Virgin Mary / Annunciation of the Theotokos (religious) Casimir Pulaski Day (IL) Cesar Chavez Day (CA, CO, TX, proposed federal) Emancipation Day in Puerto Rico (PR, cultural) Evacuation Day (Suffolk County, MA) Harriet Tubman Day (NY) Hola Mohalla (religious) Holi (NY, religious) Lailat al-Mi'raj (religious) Liberation and Freedom Day (Charlottesville, VA, cultural) Mardi Gras (AL (in two counties), LA) Maryland Day (MD) Medal of Honor Day National Poison Prevention Week (week) Nowruz (cultural, religious) Ostara (religious) Pi Day Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole Day (HI) Promised Messiah Day (religious) Saint Joseph's Day (religious) Seward's Day (AK) Texas Independence Day (TX) Town Meeting Day (VT) Transfer Day (VI) U.S. Hostage and Wrongful Detainee Day (36) Trans Day of Visibility (cultural)
March–April	Easter (religious) Good Friday (CT, NC, PR, NJ, VI, religious) Hanuman Jayanti (religious) Holy Thursday (PR, VI, religious) Holy Week (PR, religious, week) Lazarus Saturday (religious) Mahavir Janma Kalyanak (religious) Mesha Sankranti / Hindu New Year (religious) Palm Sunday (PR, religious) Passover (religious, week) Easter Monday / Bright Monday (VI, religious) Ramnavami (religious) Chandramana Uugadi / Souramana Uugadi (religious)
AprilArab American Heritage MonthConfederate History Month	420 April Fools' Day Arbor Day Birthday of José de Diego (PR) Confederate Memorial Day (AL, MS) Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust (week) DNA Day Earth Day Emancipation Day (cultural) Thomas Jefferson's Birthday (AL) Lag B’Omer (religious) Last Friday of Great Lent (religious) National First Ladies Day Pascua Florida (FL) Patriots' Day (MA, ME) Ridván (religious) San Jacinto Day (TX) Siblings Day Walpurgis Night (religious) Yom Ha'atzmaut (cultural, religious)
MayAsian American andPacific Islander Heritage MonthJewish American Heritage MonthMilitary Appreciation Month	Memorial Day (federal) Mother's Day (36) Cinco de Mayo Ascension of Baháʼu'lláh (religious) Ascension of Our Lord (religious) Caliphate Day (religious) Declaration of the Bab (religious) Harvey Milk Day (CA) International Workers' Day / May Day (CA, unofficial, proposed state) Law Day (36) Loyalty Day (36) Malcolm X Day (CA, IL, proposed federal) Military Spouse Day National Day of Prayer (36) National Day of Reason National Defense Transportation Day (36) National Maritime Day (36) Peace Officers Memorial Day (36) Pentecost (religious) Shavuot (religious) Truman Day (MO) Vesak / Buddha's Birthday (religious)
JunePride Month	Juneteenth (federal, cultural) Father's Day (36) Bunker Hill Day (Suffolk County, MA) Carolina Day (SC) Don Young Day (AK) Fast of the Holy Apostles (religious) Flag Day (36, proposed federal) Helen Keller Day (PA) Honor America Days (3 weeks) Jefferson Davis Day (AL, FL) Kamehameha Day (HI) Litha (religious) Martyrdom of Guru Arjan Dev Sahib (religious) Odunde Festival (Philadelphia, PA, cultural) Senior Week (week) Saint John's Day (PR, religious) West Virginia Day (WV) Women Veterans Day
July	Independence Day (federal) Asalha Puja Day (religious) Birthday of Don Luis Muñoz Rivera (PR) Birthday of Dr. José Celso Barbosa (PR) Emancipation Day in the U.S. Virgin Islands (VI, cultural) Guru Purnima (religious) Khordad Sal (religious) Lā Hoʻihoʻi Ea (HI, unofficial, cultural) Martyrdom of the Báb (religious) Parents' Day (36) Pioneer Day (UT) Puerto Rico Constitution Day (PR)
July–August	Summer vacation Tisha B'Av (religious)
August	American Family Day (AZ) Barack Obama Day in Illinois (IL) Bennington Battle Day (VT) Dormition of the Theotokos (religious) Eid-e-Ghadeer (religious) Fast in Honor of the Holy Mother of Lord Jesus (religious) Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (religious) Hawaii Admission Day / Statehood Day (HI) Krishna Janmashtami (religious) Lammas (religious) Lyndon Baines Johnson Day (TX) Naga Panchami (religious) National Aviation Day (36) Paryushana (religious) Raksha Bandhan (religious) Transfiguration of the Lord (religious) Victory Day (RI) Women's Equality Day (36)
SeptemberProstate Cancer Awareness MonthChildhood Cancer Awareness MonthGospel Music Heritage Month	Labor Day (federal) Brazilian Day (NY, cultural) California Admission Day (CA) Carl Garner Federal Lands Cleanup Day (36) Constitution Day and Citizenship Day (36) Constitution Week Defenders Day (MD) Elevation of the Holy Cross (religious) Feast of San Gennaro (NY, cultural, religious) Ganesh Chaturthi (religious) Gold Star Mother's Day (36) His Holiness Sakya Trizin's Birthday (religious) Mabon (religious) National Grandparents Day (36) National Payroll Week (week) Nativity of Mary / Nativity of the Theotokos (religious) Native American Day (proposed federal) Patriot Day (36) Von Steuben Day
September–OctoberHispanic Heritage Month	Chehlum Imam Hussain (religious) Oktoberfest Pitri Paksha (religious) Rosh Hashanah / Feast of Trumpets (TX, NY, religious) Shemini Atzeret (religious) Simchat Torah (religious) Vijaya Dashami (religious) Yom Kippur / Day of Atonement (TX, NY, religious)
OctoberBreast Cancer Awareness MonthDisability Employment Awareness Month Italian-American Heritage and Culture Month Filipino American History MonthLGBT History Month	Columbus Day (federal) Halloween Alaska Day (AK) Child Health Day (36) General Pulaski Memorial Day German-American Day Indigenous Peoples' Day International Day of Non-Violence Leif Erikson Day (36) Missouri Day (MO) Nanomonestotse (cultural) National School Lunch Week (week) Native American Day in South Dakota (SD) Nevada Day (NV) Spirit Day (cultural) Sweetest Day Sukkot / Feast of Tabernacles (religious, week) Virgin Islands–Puerto Rico Friendship Day (PR, VI) White Cane Safety Day (36)
October–November	Birth of the Báb (religious) Birth of Baháʼu'lláh (religious) Day of the Dead (VI) Diwali (NY, religious) Mawlid al-Nabi (religious)
November Native American Indian Heritage Month	Veterans Day (federal) Thanksgiving (federal) Ascension of ‘Abdu’l Baha (religious) All Saints' Day (religious) Beginning of the Nativity Fast (religious) Beltane / Samhain (religious) Barack Obama Day in Alabama (Perry County, AL) D. Hamilton Jackson Day (VI) Day after Thanksgiving (24) Day of the Covenant (religious) Discovery of Puerto Rico Day (PR) Election Day (CA, DE, HI, KY, MT, NJ, NY, OH, PR, VA, WV, proposed federal) Family Day (NV) Friendsgiving Guru Nanak Gurpurab (religious) Hanukkah (religious) Lā Kūʻokoʻa (HI, unofficial, cultural) Martyrdom of Guru Tegh Bahadur (religious) Native American Heritage Day (MD, WA, cultural) Presentation of the Theotokos to the Temple (religious) Trans Day of Remembrance (cultural) Unthanksgiving Day (cultural)
December	Christmas (religious, federal) New Year's Eve Advent Sunday (religious) Alabama Day (AL) Birthday of Guru Gobind Singh Sahib (religious) Bodhi Day (religious) Chalica (religious) Christmas Eve (KY, NC, SC, PR, VI) Day after Christmas (KY, NC, SC, TX, VI) Festivus HumanLight Hanukkah (religious, week) Immaculate Conception (religious) Indiana Day (IN) Kwanzaa (cultural, week) Milad Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin (religious) National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day (36) Nativity of Jesus (religious) Old Year's Night (VI) Pan American Aviation Day (36) Pancha Ganapati (religious, week) Rosa Parks Day (OH, OR) Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God (religious) Wright Brothers Day (36) Yule (religious) Zartosht No-Diso (religious)
Varies (year round)	Eid al-Adha (NY, religious) Eid al-Fitr (NY, religious) Islamic New Year (religious) Yawm al-Arafa (religious) Hajj (religious) Laylat al-Qadr (religious) Navaratri (religious, four times a year) Obon (religious) Onam (religious) Ramadan (religious, month) Ghost Festival (religious) Yawm Aashura (religious)
Legend: (federal) = federal holidays, (abbreviation) = state/territorial holidays, (religious) = religious holidays, (cultural) = holiday related to a specific racial/ethnic group or sexual minority, (week) = week-long holidays, (month) = month-long holidays, (36) = Title 36 Observances and Ceremonies See also: Lists of holidays, Hallmark holidays, Public holidays in the United States, Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands.

Authority control databases
International	FAST
National	United States Israel
Other	Yale LUX