The fifth month of the year – May, marks a significance in terms of events that happened in the history of US. The most prominent and heart wrenching is the event that took place was Civil War. Memorial Day is the celebration in honor of that event. The history has a long way, however if concluded, Memorial Day is an American holiday which is observed on last Monday of the month May. This year, it would be May the 31st. Now why do we have the need to celebrate it? What is the purpose behind it? Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following Civil War and became an official holiday in 1971. The day is celebrated to honor solidarity to all men and women who were deceased while serving the US military. It was a very cold period of time and by cold not literal cold but cold in terms of cruelty, violence, pain, loss and what not. The Civil War, which ended in the spring of 1865, is one of the most brutal and violent events in the history of US. The event claimed many lives of the US citizens than any other conflict and lead to the establishment of country’s first national cemeteries. All the people who were martyred in the war are buried in these cemeteries. In the early days, by the late 1860s, Americans from different cities begun to hold springtime tributes to the fallen soldiers. Every year on the Memorial Day, exactly at 3.00 pm in the noon, a national moment of remembrance takes place. It is unclear from where this tradition initiated but following the years of war many Americans held tributes and solidarity prayers for the fallen soldiers in different ways, different areas on different days. However, the first Decoration Day was declared on May 5, 1868, General John A. Logan, leader of an organization for Northern Civil War veterans, called for a nationwide day of remembrance later that month. “The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land,” he proclaimed. Memorial Day, as Decoration Day gradually came to be known, originally honored only those lost while fighting in the Civil War. But during World War I the United States found itself embroiled in another major conflict, and the holiday evolved to commemorate American military personnel who died in all wars, including World War II, The VietnamWar, The Korean War and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since the day is celebrated to tribute more than one event in the history or US, the date of decoration day is chosen as it doesn’t account on the anniversary of any particular battle. For decades, Memorial Day continued to be observed on May 30, the date Logan had selected for the first Decoration Day. But in 1968 Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which established Memorial Day as the last Monday in May in order to create a three-day weekend for federal employees; the change went into effect in 1971. The same law also declared Memorial Day a federal holiday. To this day, Memorial Day or Decoration Day is celebrated by decorating the graves of the mighty soldiers, reciting prayers and tributing their sacrifices that saved the entire nation. Cities and towns across the United States host memorial day parades often in Newyork, Chicago and Washington DC. While some Americans observe Memorial Day by visiting the cemeteries and reciting prayers. Some people wear a red poppy in remembrance of those fallen in war—a tradition that began with a World War I poem. On a less somber note, many people take weekend trips or throw parties and barbecues on the holiday, perhaps because Memorial Day weekend — the long weekend comprising the Saturday and Sunday before Memorial Day and Memorial Day itself — unofficially marks the beginning of summer.
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