May 27, 2025 by Olivia Howe (‘26)
Memorial Day is a U.S. holiday that honors the men and women who lost their lives while serving in the military. Initially called Decoration Day, it was created after the Civil War as a tradition of adorning the graves of soldiers with flags and flowers. In 1967, the last Monday in May was assigned to Memorial Day under federal law and became a national holiday in 1971. Today, it is a time of reflection, thankfulness, and appreciation for all those people who gave the ultimate sacrifice to keep our nation free.
The origins of Memorial Day take place after the Civil War, also known as America’s bloodiest war, where over 600,000 soldiers were killed amongst both the North and the South. People began to place U.S. flags, bouquets, or other memorabilia at the graves of the fallen. Waterloo, a small town in New York, is credited as the location that initiated the holiday, which was first observed on May 5th, 1866. During this time of celebration, stores and shops were closed for the decoration of graces, hence the source for the name Decoration Day. Eventually, a Union veteran soldier named John A. Logan unified all the decoration celebrations under a single national holiday, designating May 30th as the official holiday.
The first national celebration in May of 1868 welcomed over 5,000 people to Arlington National Cemetery, where flowers and flags were placed at both Union and Confederate gravestones. As time passed, the holiday grew, and ceremonies started to take place at more locations around the country, some even on Civil War battlefields. By the end of the 19th century, the holiday was renamed Memorial Day. Later, the tradition of the President of the United States conducting a wreath-laying ceremony to honor the Unknown Soldier (and others who never made it home from combat) was taken up as another way to remember and honor all the fallen soldiers America has lost.
After WW1, the poppy was considered the universal symbol of remembrance and was attached to the Memorial Day holiday. The flower’s popularity started with the introduction of a poem written by the Canadian Army doctor John McCrae in 1915, where he wrote about the people buried in Flanders Fields and the poppies he observed “blow(ing) Among the crosses, row on row.” In 1918, Moina Michael, a professor, wrote another poem similar to McCrae’s and helped move America, the UK, Canada, Australia, and other countries to recognize the poppy as a symbol of remembrance. In recent times, the Poppy Wall of Honor was constructed to represent every American man and woman killed in WW1 and consists of around 645,000 fake poppy flowers. It resides in Washington, D.C. at the base of the Lincoln Memorial.
Today, people across the country gather for parades, barbecues, and memorial services to remember those who died in our military and unofficially recognize the start of the summer season. This year, celebrate Memorial Day by visiting the Poppy Wall of Honor, watch televised services of Memorial Day, teach kids or other family members about Memorial Day, or commemorate the people that served by visiting cemeteries or veteran services. People also celebrate Memorial Day and the week that follows it virtually by visiting the USAA website, poppyinmemory.com, to see the Poppy Wall through the years or dedicate a poppy to a war veteran. No matter how you celebrate Memorial Day, we all give our thanks to the brave people that worked hard to protect our country.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbYCjPFPlgE : News story on Memorial Day 2021
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRXrfs0f1Fo&t=1s : History of Memorial Day
https://www.usaa.com/inet/wc/memorial-day vurl=VURL_poppyinmemory&from=poppyinmemory.com& : USAA Poppy Memorial Page
https://www.history.com/articles/memorial-day-history : Article of Memorial Day
https://newsroom.woundedwarriorproject.org/What-is-Memorial-Day-Facts-Meaning-and-History : Article on Memorial Day history