The column that wishes everyone a nice Memorial Day weekend
The column that wishes everyone a nice Memorial Day weekend
--
When Broad Street Cemetery sent me information about their Memorial Day ceremony, they also sent me some background on the holiday. Here it is for your reading pleasure:
--
On May 30, 2016, we, as a nation celebrate Memorial Day. It was given this title as the "official name by Federal Law" in 1969.
- 1882, it was called "Decoration Day." It was the day when family and veterans' organizations placed flowers on the graves of those who served our country with honor ad dedications.
- May 26, 1783 in North Stratford, now Trumbull, Connecticut is the first recorded Memorial Day celebration. The citizens of this new country celebrated the end of the Revolutionary War and honored those who had served. The day included, "feasting, prayer, speeches, toasts and two companies of the North Stratford militia performing maneuvers with cannon discharges..." From then until the Civil War, no evidence suggests other celebrations were recorded.
- There is evidence that, "organized women's groups in the South were decorating graves before the end of the Civil War." Other stories claim, "two dozen cities and towns laying claim to being the birthplace of Memorial Day."
- 1865, after the war ended, a "Memorial Day-type observance" was held in Charleston, South Carolina. Freedmen felt the Union soldiers who had died in prison at the Washington race course should be honored. These soldiers had been "buried in unmarked graves behind the grandstand of the race track." The freedmen reinterred the 260 who died in individual graves. Unable to place names on each grave, they built a fence around this new cemetery and erected an archway over the entrance that was inscribed, "Martyrs of the Race Course." On May 1, 1865, a parade of 10,000 people, led by 3,00 black children marched to the cemetery. They carried red roses and sand, "Joh Brown's Body." Preachers read scripture, songs were sung and picnics. These freedmen began an institution carried on by future generations.
- 1866, the United Daughters of the Confederacy was founded. The goal was to establish permanent cemeteries for the Confederate soldiers. One event noted that year was the placing of flowers on both Union and Confederate graves in Columbus, Mississippi.
- 1868, The Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.), with encouragement from friends wrote a proclamation dated May 5, 1868 that Declaration Day be celebrated nationwide.
- 1868, Decoration Day was officially observed on May 30, 1868 by placing flowers on both Union and Confederate graves in Arlington National Cemetery.
- After 1868, events were held in "183 cemeteries in 27 states." The number increased to 339 in 1869. Many states claim to be the first state to declare May 30 an official state holiday.
- 1890, all the northern states recognized May 30th as a holiday, but not in the South. There Decoration Day covered a range of months and dates depending on the state. This tradition continued until after WWI when states nationwide recognized May 30th as a holiday.
- May, 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson officially declared Waterloo, New York the birthplace of Memorial Day.
- 1971, passage of the National Holiday Act of 1971 designated the last Monday in May as the official Memorial Day and a three-day weekend for Federal holidays.
This year the holiday will be observed on the traditional date of May 30. The next time Memorial Day will be on the last Monday in May is 2022.
The Broad Street Cemetery Association hopes you will attend on May 30 at Broad Street Cemetery to help decorate the 400 Veterans' graves with flowers provided by BSCA. If you are a family member or relative of a veteran buried in the cemetery, BSCA would like to have you decorate the grave.
Prior to decorating the graves, there will be a program about the history of Decoration Day/Memorial Day beginning at 12:45 p.m. at the Broad Street Cemetery.
--
MY KIND OF TOWN: Where there's no shortage of patriotism.