Every year on the last Monday in May, we as a nation, honor those who served in the U.S. Military. This hasn’t always been the case. So how did Memorial Day come to be? In this article we’ll look into that and a few other things you may not have known about Memorial Day.
- Waterloo, New York is considered the birthplace of Memorial Day. On May 5th 1866, Waterloo hosted what was to become an annual event. Community-wide, businesses would close and residents decorated the graves of soldiers with flowers and flags.
- Originally Memorial Day was known ad Decoration Day. On May 5th 1868, General John A. Logan called for a nationwide day of remembrance on the 30th of May for the purpose of strewing flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of soldiers who died in the recent Civil War.
- May 30th was picked because it wasn’t the anniversary of any particular battle.
- In 1971 the federal government declared the last Monday in May to be Memorial Day. This was to give federal employees a three day weekend.
We want to thank all those who have served in the United States Military.
