Articles Tagged with “Memorial Day”

Have you ever just wanted to say, “Thanks”? Not the throw-away, say it to get it over with, kind of thanks; but the heartfelt, I really couldn’t have done this without you, sort of thank you? With today being Memorial Day, maybe it’s not such a bad idea.

Memorial Day: summer, barbecues, friends, family; not a bad thing comes to mind. Its history, though, is a lot more solemn. According to the Veterans Administration’s website’s Memorial Day History, what used be called Decoration Day began this way:

Three years after the Civil War ended, on May 5, 1868, the head of an organization of Union veterans — the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) — established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. Maj. Gen. John A. Logan declared that Decoration Day should be observed on May 30. It is believed that date was chosen because flowers would be in bloom all over the country.