Honor Those Who Served on Memorial Day
Originally called Declaration Day, Memorial Day is a day to remember those who died while serving their country. Citizens in the northeastern part of the United States have celebrated this day in May since 1868; the South celebrated its own version of Memorial Day on several different dates. After World War I, the whole country observed the holiday on the same day as they remembered everyone who gave their life during a war.
Early Memorial Day Traditions
One of the earliest Memorial Day traditions was to decorate the graves of fallen soldiers. Later, Moina Michael, inspired by the poem “In Flanders Fields,” wrote a tribute poem for Memorial Day in 1915:
We cherish too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led,
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies.
In addition, Michael sold poppies and gave the money raised to service members in need. The Franco-American Children’s League soon followed suit and sold poppies to raise money for widows and children orphaned because of war.
Modern Memorial Day Traditions
Soldiers of the 3rd U.S. Infantry place small flags at each gravestone at Arlington National Cemetery on the Thursday before Memorial Day, a tradition that has existed since the late 1950s. The Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts place flags on graves at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery. The Girl Scouts join the Boy Scouts on this occasion to place candles at the grave sites of soldiers at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park on Marye’s Heights. Recently, in 2004, the first Memorial Day parade took place in Washington D.C. in more than 60 years.
Learn more about Memorial Day.
What You Can Do on Memorial Day
USMemorialDay.org suggests you can honor fallen service members by doing the following on Memorial Day:
- Visit cemeteries. Place flags or flowers on the graves of fallen soldiers.
- Visit memorials.
- Fly the U.S. flag at half-staff until noon.
- Participate in a “National Moment of Remembrance.” At 3 p.m., pause and think about the true meaning of Memorial Day.
- Pledge to help disabled veterans as well as those who are widows, widowers and orphans because of war.
- Visit USFallen.org to view tributes to those who have died while serving in the Armed Forces.
- Honor a loved one who served the public by creating an online memorial using one of Valley of Life’s new military memorial templates.
Read more ideas about how to memorialize a loved one.
Support Sites
The following are sites that support families who have a lost a loved one serving in the Armed Forces:
Learn about children and grief.
[photo: U.S. Navy]
Tags: memorial day, memorial day traditions, military memorial templates
