Editing Memorial Day

{{Short description|Federal holiday in the United States}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Redirect|Decoration Day}}
{{Use American English|date=May 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox holiday
| holiday_name  = Memorial Day
| type          = [[federal holidays in the United States|Federal]]
| image         = Graves at Arlington on Memorial Day.JPG
| caption       = [[Arlington National Cemetery]]  graves decorated with flags during Memorial Day weekend
| observedby    = United States
| scheduling    = nth weekday of the month
| duration      = 1 day
| frequency     = Annual
| week_ordinal  = last
| weekday       = Monday
| month         = May
| date2024      = May 27
| date2025      = May 26
| date2026      = May 25
| observances   = [[Decoration Day (tradition)|Decoration of military graves]] with [[American flags]]
| significance  = {{Ubl|Honors [[U.S. military]] personnel who died in service}}
| firsttime     = May 30, 1868
}}

'''Memorial Day''' (originally known as '''Decoration Day''')<ref>{{cite web |title=Memorial Day |url=https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/memorial-day-history |website=History.com |date=May 24, 2023 }}</ref> is one of the [[federal holidays in the United States]] for honoring and mourning the U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the [[United States Armed Forces]].<ref name="vamd">{{cite web |url=http://www1.va.gov/opa/speceven/memday/ |title=Memorial Day |publisher=United States Department of Veterans Affairs |access-date=May 28, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100527171249/http://www1.va.gov/opa/speceven/memday/ |archive-date=May 27, 2010 }}</ref><ref>{{UnitedStatesCode|36|116}}</ref> It is observed on [[Uniform Monday Holiday Act|the last Monday]] of May. Memorial Day is also considered the unofficial beginning of [[summer]] in the United States.<ref>{{cite web |title=Memorial Day |url=https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/memorial-day-history |website=History.com |date=May 27, 2023 |access-date=January 2, 2020 |archive-date=December 21, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191221230211/http://www.history.com/topics/holidays/memorial-day-history |url-status=live }}</ref>

It is a day for visiting cemeteries and memorials to mourn the military personnel who died in the line of duty. Volunteers will place [[American flags]] on the graves of those military personnel in [[United States national cemetery|national cemeteries]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Yan |first=Holly |date=May 26, 2016 |title=Memorial Day 2016: What You Need to Know |url=http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/26/us/memorial-day-roundup/index.html |website=CNN |access-date=May 31, 2016 |archive-date=May 30, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160530092748/http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/26/us/memorial-day-roundup/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Others such as family and friends will also come to lay flowers and grieve on the graves of those who died in the US military.

The first national observance of Memorial Day occurred on May 30, 1868.<ref name="Today in History - May 30">{{Cite web |title=Today in History – May 30 |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/may-30/ |access-date=May 30, 2022 |website=Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. |archive-date=May 25, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190525183156/https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/may-30/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Then known as ''Decoration Day'' and observed on May 30, the holiday was proclaimed by Commander in Chief [[John A. Logan]] of the [[Grand Army of the Republic]] to honor the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] soldiers who had died in the [[American Civil War]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Memorial Day Order |publisher=National Cemetery Administration |url=https://www.cem.va.gov/history/memdayorder.asp |access-date=May 30, 2022 |website=Cem.va.gov |archive-date=May 29, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220529133217/https://www.cem.va.gov/history/memdayorder.asp |url-status=live }}</ref> This national observance followed many local observances which were inaugurated between the end of the Civil War and Logan's declaration. Many cities and people have claimed to be the first to observe it. However, the [[United States National Cemetery System|National Cemetery Administration]], a division of the [[United States Department of Veterans Affairs|Department of Veterans Affairs]], credits [[Mary Ann Williams]] with originating the "idea of strewing the graves of Civil War soldiers—Union and Confederate" with flowers.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=May 29, 2023 |title=Memorial Day History |url=https://www.cem.va.gov/history/Memorial-Day-History.asp |access-date=May 29, 2023 |website=[[National Cemetery Administration]] of the [[U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs]] |archive-date=May 28, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230528184329/https://cem.va.gov/history/Memorial-Day-History.asp |url-status=live }}</ref>

Official recognition as a holiday spread among the states, beginning with New York in 1873.<ref name=":0" /> By 1890, every Union state had adopted it. The [[world war]]s turned it into a day of remembrance for all members of the U.S. military who fought and died in service. In 1968, Congress changed its observance to the last Monday in May, and in 1971 standardized its name as "Memorial Day". 

Two other days celebrate those who have served or are serving in the U.S. military: [[Armed Forces Day#United States|Armed Forces Day]], which is earlier in May, an unofficial U.S. holiday for honoring those currently serving in the armed forces, and [[Veterans Day]] on November 11, which honors all those who have served in the United States Armed Forces.<ref>{{cite news |last=Kickler |first=Sarah |date=May 28, 2012 |title=Memorial Day vs. Veterans Day |url=http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/parenting/homefront/bal-memorial-day-vs-veterans-day-20120528,0,1402423.story |newspaper=Baltimore Sun |access-date=April 7, 2014 |archive-date=October 21, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131021211411/http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/parenting/homefront/bal-memorial-day-vs-veterans-day-20120528,0,1402423.story |url-status=dead }}</ref>

== Claimed origins ==
[[File:Tomb of the Unknowns.jpg|thumb|The [[Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)|Tomb of the Unknown Soldier]]]]
A variety of cities and people have claimed origination of Memorial Day.<ref name="Today in History - May 30" /><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.cem.va.gov/history/Memorial-Day-History.asp |title=Memorial Day History |website=U.S. Department of Veterans' Affairs |access-date=October 30, 2019 |archive-date=May 27, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220527111330/https://www.cem.va.gov/history/Memorial-Day-History.asp |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Klein |first=Christopher |title=Where Did Memorial Day Originate? |url=https://www.history.com/news/where-did-memorial-day-originate |access-date=May 30, 2022 |website=History.com |date=May 25, 2016 |archive-date=May 30, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220530190108/https://history.com/news/where-did-memorial-day-originate |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Center for Civil War Research |url=https://www.civilwarcenter.olemiss.edu/memorial_day.shtml |access-date=May 30, 2022 |website=www.civilwarcenter.olemiss.edu |archive-date=May 19, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220519021637/https://www.civilwarcenter.olemiss.edu/memorial_day.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref> In some such cases, the claims relate to documented events, occurring before or after the Civil War. Others may stem from general traditions of decorating soldiers' graves with flowers, rather than specific events leading to the national proclamation.<ref>{{cite web |first=Mary |last=L'Hommedieu Gardiner |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UwJaAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA296 |title=The Ladies Garland |page=296 |volume=6 |publisher=J. Libby |date=1842 |access-date=May 31, 2014 |via=[[Google Books]] |archive-date=September 19, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170919053342/https://books.google.com/books?id=UwJaAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA296 |url-status=live }}</ref> Soldiers' graves were decorated in the U.S. before<ref>In 1817, for example, a writer in the ''[[Analectic Magazine]]'' of Philadelphia urged the decoration of patriot's graves. E.J., "The Soldier's Grave", in ''The Analectic Magazine'' (1817), Vol. 10, 264.</ref> and during the [[American Civil War]]. Other claims may be less respectable, appearing to some researchers as taking credit without evidence, while erasing better-evidenced events or connections.<ref name="The Origins of Memorial Day">[https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/memorial-day/ "The Origins of Memorial Day"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220119043212/https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/memorial-day/ |date=January 19, 2022 }} Snopes.com, May 25, 2018</ref><ref name=":0" />

== Precedents in the South ==

=== Virginia ===
[[File:Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia - Decorating the graves of the Rebel soldiers, May 31, 1867 (16682540833).jpg|thumb|1867 Decoration Day in [[Richmond, Virginia]]'s [[Hollywood Cemetery (Richmond, Virginia)|Hollywood Cemetery]]]]

On June 3, 1861, [[Warrenton, Virginia]] was the location of the first [[Civil war|Civil War]] soldier's grave to be decorated, according to an article in the ''[[Richmond Times-Dispatch]]'' in 1906.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2001.05.0293%3Achapter%3D1.73 |title=Times-Dispatch |publisher=Perseus.tufts.edu |date=July 15, 1906 |access-date=April 7, 2014 |archive-date=July 2, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140702144441/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2001.05.0293%3Achapter%3D1.73 |url-status=live }}</ref> This decoration was for the funeral of the first soldier killed during the Civil War, [[John Quincy Marr]], who died on June 1, 1861, during a skirmish at the [[Battle of Fairfax Court House (June 1861)|Battle of Fairfax Courthouse]] in Virginia.<ref>Poland Jr., Charles P. ''The Glories Of War: Small Battles And Early Heroes Of 1861.'' Bloomington, IN (2006), 42.</ref>

=== Jackson, Mississippi ===
On April 26, 1865, in [[Jackson, Mississippi]], [[Sue Landon Vaughan]] decorated the graves of [[Confederate States Army|Confederate]] and [[Union army|Union]] soldiers according to her account. The first reference to this event however did not appear until many years later.<ref name="Bellware 2014">{{Cite book |last=Bellware |first=Daniel |date=2014 |title=The Genesis of the Memorial Day holiday in America |publisher=Columbus State University |isbn=9780692292259 |oclc=898066352 }}</ref> Mention of the observance is inscribed on the southeast panel of the [[Confederate Monument (Jackson, Mississippi)|Confederate Monument]] in Jackson, erected in 1891.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMWD72_Mississippi_Confederate_Monument_Jackson_MS |title=Mississippi Confederate Monument – Jackson, MS |website=WayMarking.com |access-date=October 30, 2019 |archive-date=October 30, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191030221243/https://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMWD72_Mississippi_Confederate_Monument_Jackson_MS |url-status=live }}</ref> Vaughan's account is contradicted by contemporary sources.<ref name="auto" />

=== Charleston, South Carolina ===
On May 1, 1865, in [[Charleston, South Carolina]], the recently freed Black population held a parade of 10,000 people to honor 257 dead Union soldiers. The soldiers had been buried in a mass grave at the Washington Race Course, having died at the Confederate prison camp located there. After the city fell, the freed Black population unearthed and properly buried the soldiers, placing flowers at their graves. The event was reported contemporaneously in the ''[[Charleston Daily Courier]]'' and the ''[[New-York Tribune]].''<ref>{{Cite web |last=Roos |first=Dave |title=One of the Earliest Memorial Day Ceremonies Was Held by Freed African Americans |url=https://www.history.com/news/memorial-day-civil-war-slavery-charleston |access-date=May 30, 2022 |website=History.com |date=May 24, 2019 |archive-date=May 30, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220530142431/https://www.history.com/news/memorial-day-civil-war-slavery-charleston |url-status=live }}</ref> Historian [[David Blight]] has called this commemoration the first Memorial Day. However, no direct link has been established between this event and General [[John A. Logan|John Logan]]'s 1868 proclamation for a national holiday.<ref>{{cite web |last=Blight |first=David W. |url=http://oyc.yale.edu/history/hist-119/lecture-19 |title=Lecture: To Appomattox and Beyond: The End of the War and a Search for Meanings, Overview |website=Oyc.Yale.edu |quote=Professor Blight closes his lecture with a description of the first Memorial Day, celebrated by African Americans in Charleston, SC 1865. |access-date=May 31, 2014 |archive-date=May 30, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140530094526/http://oyc.yale.edu/history/hist-119/lecture-19 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/27/us/many-claim-to-be-memorial-day-birthplace.html David Blight, cited by Campbell Robertson, "Birthplace of Memorial Day? That Depends Where You're From", ''The New York Times'', May 28, 2012] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170617112424/http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/27/us/many-claim-to-be-memorial-day-birthplace.html |date=June 17, 2017 }} – Blight quote from 2nd web page: "He has called that the first Memorial Day, as it predated most of the other contenders, though he said he has no evidence that it led to General Logan's call for a national holiday."</ref><ref name="The Origins of Memorial Day" />

=== Columbus, Georgia ===
{{Quote box
 |quote  = . . . [W]e can keep alive the memory of debt we owe them by dedicating
at least one day in the year, by embellishing their humble graves with
flowers, therefore we beg the assistance of the press and the ladies
throughout the South to help us in the effort to set apart a certain day
to be observed, from the [[Potomac River|Potomac]] to the [[Rio Grande]] and be handed
down through time as a religious custom of the country, to wreathe the
graves of our martyred dead with flowers. . . Let the soldiers’ graves,
for that day at least, be the Southern [[Mecca]], to whose shrine her
sorrowing women, like pilgrims, may annually bring their grateful
hearts and floral offerings. . . 
 |author = —[[Mary Ann Williams]] 
 |source = March 11, 1866<ref name="auto" />
 |width  = 33%
 |align  = right
}}

The [[United States National Cemetery System|National Cemetery Administration]], a division of the [[United States Department of Veterans Affairs|Department of Veterans Affairs]],<ref name=":0" /> and scholars attribute the beginning of a Memorial Day practice in [[The Southern United States|the South]] to a group of women of [[Columbus, Georgia]].<ref name="Bellware 2014" /><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CVXUcyJlgLkC&pg=PA190 |title=The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History |first1=Gary W. |last1=Gallagher |first2=Alan T. |last2=Nolan |date=2000 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=9780253109026 |access-date=May 25, 2020 |via=Google Books }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P9t-CQAAQBAJ&pg=PT26|title=No Holier Spot of Ground: Confederate Monuments & Cemeteries of South Carolina|first=Kristina Dunn|last=Johnson|date=2009|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=9781614232827|access-date=May 25, 2020 |via=Google Books }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CyQF6pKZ61YC&pg=PA103|title=Mystic Chords of Memory: The Transformation of Tradition in American Culture|first=Michael|last=Kammen|date= 2011|publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group|isbn=9780307761408|access-date=May 25, 2020|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://thesouthern.com/news/local/a-complicated-journey-the-story-of-logan-and-memorial-day/article_57e2de05-b9b1-5237-b933-0d43fb8492d7.html |title=A 'complicated' journey: The story of Logan and Memorial Day |first=Tom |last=English |website=The Southern |date=May 22, 2015 |access-date=May 25, 2020 |archive-date=May 31, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240531181237/https://thesouthern.com/news/local/a-complicated-journey-the-story-of-logan-and-memorial-day/article_57e2de05-b9b1-5237-b933-0d43fb8492d7.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hUEOAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA246 |title=Mrs. Logan's Memoirs |page=246 |via=Google Books |access-date=April 7, 2014 |date=1913 |last=Logan|first=Mrs. John A. }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/27/us/many-claim-to-be-memorial-day-birthplace.html |title=Birthplace of Memorial Day? That Depends Where You're From |date=May 27, 2012 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=February 27, 2017 |archive-date=June 17, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170617112424/http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/27/us/many-claim-to-be-memorial-day-birthplace.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The women were the [[Ladies' Memorial Association|Ladies Memorial Association]] of Columbus. They were represented by [[Mary Ann Williams]] (Mrs. Charles J. Williams) who as association secretary wrote an [[open letter]] to the press on March 11, 1866<ref name="auto" /> asking for assistance in establishing an annual holiday to decorate the graves of soldiers throughout the South.<ref name="Jones 2015">{{cite news |last=Jones |first=Michael |title=Memorial Day's Roots Traced to Georgia |url=http://www.nwherald.com/2015/05/21/guest-view-memorial-days-roots-traced-to-georgia/a6p06gb/ |newspaper=Northwest Herald |date=May 23, 2015 |access-date=May 10, 2016 |archive-date=June 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160603170409/http://www.nwherald.com/2015/05/21/guest-view-memorial-days-roots-traced-to-georgia/a6p06gb/ |url-status=live }}</ref>  The letter was reprinted in several southern states and the plans were noted in newspapers in [[Northern United States|the North]]. The date of April 26 was chosen, which corresponded with the end date of the war with the [[Bennett Place|surrender agreement]] between Generals [[Joseph E. Johnston|Johnston]] and [[William Tecumseh Sherman|Sherman]] in 1865.<ref name="auto" />

The holiday was observed in Atlanta, Augusta, Macon, Columbus and elsewhere in Georgia as well as Montgomery, Alabama; Memphis, Tennessee; Louisville, Kentucky; New Orleans, Louisiana; Jackson, Mississippi, and across the South.<ref name="Bellware 2014" />  In some cities, mostly in Virginia, other dates in May and June were observed. General John Logan commented on the observances in a speech to veterans on July 4, 1866, in [[Salem, Illinois]].<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/05/26/contested-confederate-roots-memorial-day/ |title=Memorial Day's Confederate Roots: Who Really Invented the Holiday? |last=Brockell |first=Gillian |date=May 27, 2019 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |access-date=October 9, 2019 |archive-date=June 9, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190609080226/https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/05/26/contested-confederate-roots-memorial-day/ |url-status=live }}</ref> After General Logan's General Order No. 11 to the [[Grand Army of the Republic]] to observe May 30, 1868, the earlier version of the holiday began to be referred to as [[Confederate Memorial Day]].<ref name="Bellware 2014" />

=== Columbus, Mississippi ===
Following Mary William's call for assistance,<ref name=":0" /> four women of [[Columbus, Mississippi]] a day early on April 25, 1866, gathered together at [[Friendship Cemetery]] to decorate the graves of the Confederate soldiers. They also felt moved to honor the Union soldiers buried there, and to note the grief of their families, by decorating their graves as well. The story of their gesture of humanity and reconciliation is held by some writers as the inspiration of the original Memorial Day.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/05/a-real-story-of-memorial-day/371497/|title=A Real Story of Memorial Day|last=Fallows|first=Deborah|date=May 23, 2014|website=The Atlantic|access-date=January 21, 2020|archive-date=June 13, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170613232901/https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/05/a-real-story-of-memorial-day/371497/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://relicrecord.com/blog/decoration-day-origins-memorial-day/ |title=Decoration Day & The Origins Of Memorial Day |last=Adams |first=Will |date=May 25, 2017 |website=RelicRecord |access-date=January 21, 2020 |archive-date=June 13, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200613000504/https://relicrecord.com/blog/decoration-day-origins-memorial-day/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=8552 |title=Confederate Decoration Day Historical Marker |website=Hmdb.org |access-date=January 21, 2020 |archive-date=June 12, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200612152812/https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=8552 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/05/28/graves-union-soldiers-buried-unmarked-graves-columbus/646666002/|title=MSU library, Ole Miss anthropologist, local historian search for Union graves|website=The Clarion Ledger|access-date=January 21, 2020|archive-date=May 31, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240531181237/https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/05/28/graves-union-soldiers-buried-unmarked-graves-columbus/646666002/|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Other Southern precedents ===
According to the [[United States Library of Congress]], "Southern women decorated the graves of soldiers even before the Civil War’s end. Records show that by 1865, Mississippi, Virginia, and South Carolina all had precedents for Memorial Day."<ref>{{cite web |title=Today in History – May 30 – Memorial Day |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/may-30/ |publisher=United States Library of Congress |access-date=May 28, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190525183156/https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/may-30/ |archive-date=May 25, 2019}}</ref> The earliest Southern Memorial Day celebrations were simple, somber occasions for veterans and their families to honor the dead and tend to local cemeteries.<ref name="Center(Firm)2000">{{cite book|title=America, history and life|publisher=Clio Press|date=2000|page=190|author1=University of Michigan|author2=EBSCO Publishing (Firm)}}</ref> In following years, the Ladies' Memorial Association and other groups increasingly focused rituals on preserving Confederate culture and the [[Lost Cause of the Confederacy]] narrative.<ref name="auto1">{{cite book|author=Karen L. Cox|title=Dixie's Daughters: The United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Preservation of Confederate Culture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U_jpxKJDleQC&pg=PA11 |date=2003 |publisher=University Press of Florida|page=11|isbn=978-0813031330 }}</ref>

== Precedents in the North ==
[[File:John A. Logan (general).jpg|thumb|upright|General [[John A. Logan]], who in 1868 issued a proclamation calling for a national "Decoration Day"]]

=== Gettysburg, Pennsylvania ===
The 1863 cemetery dedication at [[Gettysburg, Pennsylvania]], included a ceremony of commemoration at the graves of dead soldiers. Some have therefore claimed that President [[Abraham Lincoln]] was the founder of Memorial Day.<ref>"Lincoln's Message to Today", Trenton (NJ) ''Evening Times'', May 30, 1913.</ref> However, Chicago journalist Lloyd Lewis tried to make the case that it was Lincoln's funeral that spurred the soldiers' grave decorating that followed.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Myths after Lincoln |last=Lloyd |first=Lewis |publisher=Press of the Readers Club |date=1941 |location=New York |pages=309–310 |isbn=}}{{ISBN missing}}</ref>

=== Boalsburg, Pennsylvania ===
On July 4, 1864, ladies decorated soldiers' graves according to local historians in [[Boalsburg, Pennsylvania]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.civilwarcenter.olemiss.edu/memorial_day.shtml |title=Sophie Keller Hall, in The Story of Our Regiment: A History of the 148th Pennsylvania Vols., ed. J.W. Muffly (Des Moines: The Kenyon Printing & Mfg. Co., 1904), quoted in editor's note, p. 45 |publisher=Civilwarcenter.olemiss.edu |access-date=May 28, 2012 |archive-date=May 31, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240531181236/http://www.civilwarcenter.olemiss.edu/memorial_day.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref> Boalsburg promotes itself as the birthplace of Memorial Day.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.boalsburg.com/ |title=Boalsburg, PA, birthplace of Memorial Day |website=Boalsburg.com |date=March 26, 1997 |access-date=May 28, 2012 |archive-date=March 4, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120304034210/http://www.boalsburg.com/ |url-status=live }}</ref> However, no published reference to this event has been found earlier than the printing of the History of the 148th Pennsylvania Volunteers in 1904.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The story of our Regiment : a history of the 148th Pennsylvania Vols.|last=Muffly, J. W. (Joseph Wendel)|date=1904|page=45|publisher=Butternut and Blue|isbn=0935523391|oclc=33463683}}</ref> In a footnote to a story about her brother, Mrs. Sophie (Keller) Hall described how she and Emma Hunter decorated the grave of Emma's father, Reuben Hunter, and then the graves of all soldiers in the cemetery. The original story did not account for Reuben Hunter's death occurring two months later on September 19, 1864. It also did not mention Mrs. Elizabeth Myers as one of the original participants. A bronze statue of all three women gazing upon Reuben Hunter's grave now stands near the entrance to the Boalsburg Cemetery. Although July 4, 1864, was a Monday, the town now claims that the original decoration was on one of the Sundays in October 1864.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/literary-cultural-heritage-map-pa/feature-articles/boalsburg-and-origin-memorial-day |title=Boalsburg and the Origin of Memorial Day |last=Flynn |first=Michael |date=2010 |website=Pennsylvania Center for the Book |access-date=October 30, 2019 |archive-date=August 30, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190830163845/https://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/literary-cultural-heritage-map-pa/feature-articles/boalsburg-and-origin-memorial-day |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== National Decoration Day ===
{{Quote box
 |quote  = ... Let us then gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with the choicest flowers of Springtime; let us raise above them the dear [[United States flag|old flag]] they saved from dishonor; let us in this solemn presence renew our pledges to aid and assist those whom they have left among us as a sacred charge upon a Nation's gratitude—the soldiers' and sailors' widow and orphan.
 |author = —[[John A. Logan]] 
 |source = May 5, 1868<ref>{{Cite book |last=Woodman |first=Wlliam |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jgACAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA346 |title=Common School Education and Teachers World |date=1891 |publisher=Bemis Publishing Company |pages=346 |language=en |chapter=Decoration Day Exercise}}</ref>
 |width  = 33%
 |align  = right
}}

On May 5, 1868, General [[John A. Logan]] issued a proclamation calling for "Decoration Day" to be observed annually and nationwide; he was commander-in-chief of the [[Grand Army of the Republic]] (GAR), an organization of and for Union Civil War veterans founded in [[Decatur, Illinois]].<ref name="JabbourJabbour2010">{{cite book |first1=Alan |last1=Jabbour |first2=Karen Singer |last2=Jabbour |title=Decoration Day in the Mountains: Traditions of Cemetery Decoration in the Southern Appalachians |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zoiJU8N_M8UC&pg=PA125 |access-date=May 28, 2012 |date=2010 |publisher=Univ of North Carolina Press |isbn=978-0-8078-3397-1 |page=125 }}</ref> With his proclamation, Logan adopted the Memorial Day practice that had begun in the Southern states two years earlier.<ref name="Bellware 2014" /><ref name="Jones 2015" /><ref name="auto">{{Cite journal |last1=Gardiner |first1=Richard |last2=Jones |first2=P. Michael |last3=Bellware |first3=Daniel |url=https://csuepress.columbusstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3685&context=bibliography_faculty |title=The Emergence and Evolution of Memorial Day |journal=Journal of America's Military Past |volume=43–2 |issue=137 |date=Spring–Summer 2018 |pages=19–37 |access-date=May 25, 2020 |archive-date=October 27, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201027055058/https://csuepress.columbusstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3685&context=bibliography_faculty |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hUEOAAAAIAAJ&q=%22for+the+Union+men+of+the+nation+to+follow+the+example+of+the+people+of+the+South%22&pg=PA246 |title=General John Logan, Quoted By His Wife |via=Google Books |access-date=April 7, 2014 |date=1913 |last=Logan |first=Mrs. John A. |archive-date=May 31, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240531181240/https://books.google.com/books?id=hUEOAAAAIAAJ&q=%22for+the+Union+men+of+the+nation+to+follow+the+example+of+the+people+of+the+South%22&pg=PA246#v=snippet&q=%22for%20the%20Union%20men%20of%20the%20nation%20to%20follow%20the%20example%20of%20the%20people%20of%20the%20South%22&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>[http://thesouthern.com/news/local/a-complicated-journey-the-story-of-logan-and-memorial-day/article_57e2de05-b9b1-5237-b933-0d43fb8492d7.html "A Complicated Journey: The Story of Logan and Memorial Day"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170907075339/http://thesouthern.com/news/local/a-complicated-journey-the-story-of-logan-and-memorial-day/article_57e2de05-b9b1-5237-b933-0d43fb8492d7.html |date=September 7, 2017 }} Tom English, ''The Southern Illinoisan'', May 22, 2015</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Halstead |first=Marilyn |url=http://thesouthern.com/news/local/did-logan-start-memorial-day-logan-museum-director-invites-visitors/article_4a737820-3cfe-57b8-bafd-02c2d127d0f8.html |title=Did Logan Start Memorial Day? Logan Museum Director Invites Visitors to Decide |website=TheSouthern.com |access-date=May 26, 2018 |archive-date=May 27, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180527023147/http://thesouthern.com/news/local/did-logan-start-memorial-day-logan-museum-director-invites-visitors/article_4a737820-3cfe-57b8-bafd-02c2d127d0f8.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://wtop.com/holidays/2018/05/the-forgotten-history-of-memorial-day/ |title=The forgotten history of Memorial Day |date=May 25, 2018 |website=WTOP.com |access-date=September 17, 2018 |archive-date=September 18, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180918012239/https://wtop.com/holidays/2018/05/the-forgotten-history-of-memorial-day/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The northern states quickly adopted the holiday. In 1868, memorial events were held in 183 cemeteries in 27 states, and 336 in 1869.<ref name="Blight 2001">{{cite book |last=Blight |first=David W. |date=2001 |title=Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3R-yvmpYaqAC |publisher=Harvard U.P. |isbn=978-0674022096 }}</ref>{{Rp|99–100}} One author claims that the date was chosen because it was not the anniversary of any particular battle.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Hennig |last1=Cohen |first2=Tristram Potter |last2=Coffin |title=The Folklore of American Holidays |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rhzXAAAAMAAJ |date=1991 |publisher=Gale Research |page=215 |isbn=978-0810376021 }}</ref> Logan's wife noted that the date was chosen because it was the optimal date for flowers to be in bloom in the North.<ref name="auto" /><ref>{{cite web |url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/photos-and-video/video/weekly-address-honoring-fallen#transcript |title=Barack Obama, Weekly Address |format=transcript |date=May 29, 2010 |via=[[NARA|National Archives]] |website=[[Whitehouse.gov]] |access-date=April 7, 2014 |archive-date=May 31, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210531154222/https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/photos-and-video/video/weekly-address-honoring-fallen#transcript |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== State holiday ===
[[File:1870DecorationDayStPaulMNphotoCharlesZimmerman.jpg|thumb|upright|The 1870 Decoration Day parade in [[St. Paul, Minnesota]]]]
In 1873, New York made Decoration Day an official state holiday and by 1890, every northern state had followed suit.<ref name=":0" /> There was no standard program for the ceremonies, but they were typically sponsored by the [[Women's Relief Corps]], the women's auxiliary of the [[Grand Army of the Republic|Grand Army of the Republic (GAR)]], which had 100,000 members. By 1870, the remains of nearly 300,000 Union dead had been reinterred in 73 national cemeteries, located near major battlefields and thus mainly in the South. The most famous are [[Gettysburg National Cemetery]] in Pennsylvania and [[Arlington National Cemetery]], near Washington, D.C.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cem.va.gov/cem/pdf/IS1_Jan_2011.pdf |title=Interments in Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) National Cemeteries |date=January 2011 |location=Washington, DC |publisher=National Cemetery Administration – Department of Veterans Affairs VA-NCA-IS-1 |quote=After the Civil War, search and recovery teams visited hundreds of battlefields, churchyards, plantations and other locations seeking wartime interments that were made in haste. By 1870, the remains of nearly 300,000 Civil War dead were reinterred in 73 national cemeteries. |access-date=June 1, 2014 |archive-date=May 13, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170513170040/https://www.cem.va.gov/CEM/pdf/IS1_Jan_2011.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Waterloo proclamation ===
On May 26, 1966, President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] designated an "official" birthplace of the holiday by signing the presidential proclamation naming [[Waterloo (village), New York|Waterloo, New York]], as the holder of the title. This action followed House Concurrent Resolution 587, in which the 89th Congress had officially recognized that the patriotic tradition of observing Memorial Day had begun one hundred years prior in Waterloo, New York.<ref>{{cite web |title=Presidential Proclamation 3727 |url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/proclamation-3727-prayer-for-peace-memorial-day-1966 |last=Johnson |first=Lyndon |access-date=May 27, 2013 |archive-date=June 12, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200612193953/https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/proclamation-3727-prayer-for-peace-memorial-day-1966 |url-status=live }}</ref> The legitimacy of this claim has been called into question by several scholars.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.syracuse.com/living/2019/05/the-origin-of-memorial-day-is-waterloos-claim-to-fame-the-result-of-a-simple-newspaper-typo.html |title=The origin of Memorial Day: Is Waterloo's claim to fame the result of a simple newspaper typo? |website=Syracuse.com |date=May 24, 2019 |access-date=June 3, 2021 |archive-date=June 3, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210603231556/https://www.syracuse.com/living/2019/05/the-origin-of-memorial-day-is-waterloos-claim-to-fame-the-result-of-a-simple-newspaper-typo.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

== Early national history ==
In April 1865, following [[Abraham Lincoln#Assassination|Lincoln's assassination]], commemorations were extensive. The more than 600,000 soldiers of both sides who fought and died in the Civil War meant that burial and memorialization took on new cultural significance. Under the leadership of women during the war, an increasingly formal practice of decorating graves had taken shape. In 1865, the federal government also began creating the [[United States National Cemetery System]] for the Union war dead.<ref name="WaughGallagher2009">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uush7mwletkC&pg=PA187 |title=Wars within a War: Controversy and Conflict over the American Civil War |date=2009 |publisher=Univ of North Carolina Press |isbn=978-0-8078-3275-2 |page=187 |author1=Joan Waugh |author2=Gary W. Gallagher |author-link1=Joan Waugh |author-link2=Gary W. Gallagher }}</ref>
[[File:Orphans decorating their fathers' graves in Glenwood Cemetery, Philadelphia, on Decoration Day LCCN2006677411.jpg|thumb|Orphans placing flags at their fathers' graves in [[Glenwood Memorial Gardens|Glenwood Cemetery]] in Philadelphia on Decoration Day]]
By the 1880s, ceremonies were becoming more consistent across geography as the GAR provided handbooks that presented specific procedures, poems, and Bible verses for local post commanders to utilize in planning the local event. Historian Stuart McConnell reports:<ref>{{cite book |first=Stuart |last=McConnell |date=1997 |title=Glorious Contentment: The Grand Army of the Republic, 1865–1900 |page=184 |publisher=Univ of North Carolina Press |isbn=978-0807846285 }}</ref>

<blockquote>on the day itself, the post assembled and marched to the local cemetery to decorate the graves of the fallen, an enterprise meticulously organized months in advance to assure that none were missed. Finally came a simple and subdued graveyard service involving prayers, short patriotic speeches, and music ... and at the end perhaps a rifle salute.</blockquote>

=== Confederate Memorial Day ===
{{Main|Confederate Memorial Day}}
[[File:Confederate Memorial at Alabama State Capitol Apr2009.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Confederate Memorial Monument]] in Montgomery, Alabama]]

In 1868, some Southern public figures began adding the label "Confederate" to their commemorations and claimed that Northerners had appropriated the holiday.<ref name="nps.gov">[http://www.nps.gov/ande/historyculture/flowersforjennie.htm National Park Service, "Flowers For Jennie"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240531181242/https://www.nps.gov/ande/learn/historyculture/flowersforjennie.htm |date=May 31, 2024 }} Retrieved February 24, 2015</ref><ref name="Bellware 2014" /><ref name="google1">{{cite book |last=Knight |first=Lucian Lamar |date=1914 |title=Memorial Day: Its True History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0zczAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA156 |via=Google Books |access-date=May 28, 2012 |archive-date=May 31, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240531181242/https://books.google.com/books?id=0zczAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA156#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> The first official celebration of Confederate Memorial Day as a public holiday occurred in 1874, following a proclamation by the Georgia legislature.<ref name="GeorgiaInfo">{{cite news |title=Confederate Memorial Day in Georgia |url=https://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/topics/history/article/civil-war-reconstruction-1861-1877/confederate-memorial-day-in-georgia |newspaper=New Georgia Encyclopedia |publisher=University of Georgia |access-date=January 22, 2019 |archive-date=January 22, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190122195602/https://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/topics/history/article/civil-war-reconstruction-1861-1877/confederate-memorial-day-in-georgia |url-status=live }}</ref> By 1916, ten states celebrated it, on June 3, the birthday of [[Confederate States of America|CSA]] President [[Jefferson Davis]].<ref name="GeorgiaInfo" /> Other states chose late April dates, or May 10, commemorating Davis' capture.<ref name="GeorgiaInfo" />

The [[Ladies' Memorial Association]] played a key role in using Memorial Day rituals to preserve Confederate culture.<ref name="auto1" /> Various dates ranging from April 25 to mid-June were adopted in different Southern states. Across the South, associations were founded, many by women, to establish and care for permanent cemeteries for the Confederate dead, organize commemorative ceremonies, and sponsor appropriate monuments as a permanent way of remembering the Confederate dead. The most important of these was the [[United Daughters of the Confederacy]], which grew throughout the South.<ref name="Center(Firm)2000" /> Changes in the ceremony's hymns and speeches reflect an evolution of the ritual into a symbol of cultural renewal and conservatism in the South. By 1913, [[David Blight]] argues, the theme of American nationalism shared equal time with the Confederate.<ref name="Blight 2001" />{{Rp|265}}

==Renaming==
[[File:The March of Time, by Henry Sandham.jpg|thumb|''The March of Time'', by [[Henry Sandham]] depicting Civil War veterans parading during Decoration Day, 1896 ]]

By the 20th century, various Union memorial traditions, celebrated on different days, merged, and Memorial Day eventually extended to honor all Americans who fought and died while in the U.S. military service.<ref name="vamd" /> Indiana from the 1860s to the 1920s saw numerous debates on how to expand the celebration. It was a favorite lobbying activity of the [[Grand Army of the Republic]] (GAR). An 1884 GAR handbook explained that Memorial Day was "the day of all days in the G.A.R. Calendar" in terms of mobilizing public support for pensions. It advised family members to "exercise great care" in keeping the veterans sober.<ref name="Sacco 2015">{{cite journal |first=Nicholas W. |last=Sacco |title=The Grand Army of the Republic, the Indianapolis 500, and the Struggle for Memorial Day in Indiana, 1868–1923 |journal=Indiana Magazine of History |volume=111 |issue=4 |date=2015 }}</ref>{{Rp|352}}

Memorial Day speeches became an occasion for veterans, politicians, and ministers to commemorate the Civil War and, at first, to rehash the "atrocities" of the enemy. They mixed religion and celebratory nationalism, allowing Americans to make sense of their history in terms of sacrifice for a better nation. People of all religious beliefs joined, including German and Irish soldiers&nbsp;– ethnic minorities who [[Anti-Irish sentiment#19th century|at the time]] faced [[Anti-German sentiment#United States|discrimination]]&nbsp;– who had become true Americans in the "baptism of blood" on the battlefield.<ref>{{cite book |last=Samito |first=Christian G. |date=2009 |title=Becoming American under Fire: Irish Americans, African Americans, and the Politics of Citizenship during the Civil War Era |url=https://archive.org/details/becomingamerican00sami |url-access=registration |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-0-8014-4846-1 |page=[https://archive.org/details/becomingamerican00sami/page/126 126] |access-date=May 25, 2014 }}</ref>

[[File:DecorationDayMcCutcheon.jpg|thumb|upright=1|"On Decoration Day" Political cartoon c. 1900 by [[John T. McCutcheon]]. Caption: "You bet I'm goin' to be a soldier, too, like my Uncle David, when I grow up."]]

In the national capital in 1913 the four-day "Blue-Gray Reunion" featured parades, re-enactments, and speeches from a host of dignitaries, including President [[Woodrow Wilson]], the first Southerner elected to the [[White House]] since the War. [[James Thomas Heflin|James Heflin]] of [[Alabama]] gave the main address. Heflin was a noted orator; his choice as Memorial Day speaker was criticized, as he was opposed for his support of segregation; however, his speech was moderate in tone and stressed national unity and good will, winning him praise from newspapers.<ref>{{cite magazine |first=G. Allan |last=Yeomans |title=A Southern Segregationist Goes to Gettysburg |magazine=Alabama Historical Quarterly |date=1972 |volume=34 |issue=3 |pages=194–205 }}</ref>

The name "Memorial Day", which was first used in 1882, gradually became more common than "Decoration Day" after [[World War II]]<ref>{{cite book |first1=Henry Perkins |last1=Goddard |first2=Calvin Goddard |last2=Zon |title=The Good Fight That Didn't End: Henry P. Goddard's Accounts of Civil War and Peace |url=https://archive.org/details/goodfightthatdid0000godd |url-access=registration |date=2008 |publisher=Univ of South Carolina Press |isbn=978-1-57003-772-6 |page=[https://archive.org/details/goodfightthatdid0000godd/page/285 285]}}</ref> but was not declared the official name by federal law until 1967.<ref>{{cite book |last=Axelrod |first=Alan |date=2007 |title=Miracle at Belleau Wood: The Birth of the Modern U.S. Marine Corps |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SjMaIjJKRTcC&pg=PA233 |publisher=Globe Pequot |isbn=978-1-59921-025-4 |page=233 }}</ref> On June 28, 1968, Congress passed the [[Uniform Monday Holiday Act]], which moved four holidays, including Memorial Day, from their traditional dates to a specified Monday in order to create a three-day weekend.<ref name="Public Law 90-363">{{cite web |url=https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2004/winter/images/uniform-monday-holiday-law.jpg |title=Public Law 90-363 |access-date=April 7, 2014 |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304050249/http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2004/winter/images/uniform-monday-holiday-law.jpg |url-status=live }}</ref> The change moved Memorial Day from its traditional May 30 date to the last Monday in May. The law took effect at the federal level in 1971.<ref name="Public Law 90-363" />

In 1913, an Indiana veteran complained that younger people born since the war had a "tendency ... to forget the purpose of Memorial Day and make it a day for games, races, and revelry, instead of a day of memory and tears".<ref name="Sacco 2015" />{{Rp|362}} In 1911, the scheduling of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway car race, later named the [[Indianapolis 500]], was vehemently opposed by the increasingly elderly GAR. The state legislature in 1923 rejected holding the race on the holiday. However, the new [[American Legion]] and local officials wanted the race to continue, so Governor [[Warren McCray]] vetoed the bill and the race went on.<ref name="Sacco 2015" />{{Rp|376}}

==Civil religious holiday==
[[File:Remembering the fallen at ANC on Memorial Day 150525-A-FT656-762.jpg|thumb|The [[United States Marine Band]] on Memorial Day]]

Memorial Day endures as a holiday which most businesses observe because it marks the unofficial beginning of summer. ([[Labor Day]] is the unofficial end of summer.) The [[Veterans of Foreign Wars]] (VFW) and [[Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War]] (SUVCW) advocated returning to the original date. The VFW stated in 2002:<ref>{{cite web |last=Mechant |first=David |date=April 28, 2007 |url=http://www.usmemorialday.org/backgrnd.html |title=Memorial Day History |access-date=May 28, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181101232228/http://www.usmemorialday.org/backgrnd.html |archive-date=November 1, 2018 }}</ref>

<blockquote>Changing the date merely to create three-day weekends has undermined the very meaning of the day. No doubt, this has contributed a lot to the general public's nonchalant observance of Memorial Day.</blockquote>

In 2000, Congress passed the [[National Moment of Remembrance]] Act, asking people to stop and remember at 3:00 pm.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Scott |first=Ryan |date=May 24, 2015 |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/causeintegration/2015/05/24/memorial-day-3pm-dont-forget/ |title=Memorial Day, 3 p.m.: Don't Forget |journal=[[Forbes]] |access-date=June 2, 2015 |archive-date=May 29, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150529053532/http://www.forbes.com/sites/causeintegration/2015/05/24/memorial-day-3pm-dont-forget/ |url-status=live }}</ref> On Memorial Day, the [[flag of the United States]] is raised briskly to the top of the staff and then solemnly lowered to the [[Half-mast|half-staff]] position, where it remains only until noon.<ref name="PostPost2011">{{cite book |first1=Peggy |last1=Post |first2=Anna |last2=Post |first3=Lizzie |last3=Post |author-link3=Lizzie Post |first4=Daniel Post |last4=Senning |author-link4=Daniel Post Senning |title=Emily Post's Etiquette, 18 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PIxPN_4IO34C&pg=PT165 |date=2011 |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=978-0-06-210127-3 |page=165 }}</ref> It is then raised to full-staff for the remainder of the day.<ref name="Congress2009">{{cite book |title=United States Code, 2006, Supplement 1, January 4, 2007, to January 8, 2008 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W-D35f9c0aUC&pg=PA39 |date=2009 |publisher=Government Printing Office |isbn=978-0-16-083512-4 |page=39 }}</ref>  In commemoration ceremonies the [[Taps (bugle call)|Taps]] are played on the bugle. The [[National Memorial Day Concert]] takes place on the west lawn of the [[United States Capitol]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pbs.org/national-memorial-day-concert/about/faq/ |title=The National Memorial Day Concert |website=pbs.org |date=May 25, 2018 |access-date=May 27, 2018 |archive-date=May 31, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180531100940/http://www.pbs.org/national-memorial-day-concert/about/faq/ |url-status=live }}</ref> 


Scholars,<ref>{{cite book |author1=William H. Swatos |author2=Peter Kivisto |title=Encyclopedia of Religion and Society |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6TMFoMFe-D8C&pg=PA49 |date=1998 |publisher=Rowman Altamira |pages=49–50 |isbn=978-0-7619-8956-1 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Marcela |last=Cristi |title=From Civil to Political Religion: The Intersection of Culture, Religion and Politics |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rg4m04-j_psC&pg=PA48 |date=2001 |publisher=Wilfrid Laurier U.P. |pages=48–53 |isbn=978-0-88920-368-6 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=William M. Epstein|title=American Policy Making: Welfare As Ritual|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TPhuRckKmsoC&pg=PA99|date=2002|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|page=99|isbn=978-0-7425-1733-2}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=Corwin E. Smidt|author2=Lyman A. Kellstedt|author3=James L. Guth|title=The Oxford Handbook of Religion and American Politics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dR385m8rcxwC&pg=PA142 |date=2009 |publisher=Oxford Handbooks Online |pages=142–143 |isbn=978-0-19-532652-9 }}</ref> following the lead of sociologist [[Robert N. Bellah|Robert Bellah]], often make the argument that the United States has a secular "[[American civil religion|civil religion]]"—one with no association with any religious denomination or viewpoint—that has incorporated Memorial Day as a sacred event. With the Civil War, a new theme of death, sacrifice, and rebirth enters the civil religion. Memorial Day gave ritual expression to these themes, integrating the local community into a sense of nationalism. The American civil religion, in contrast to that of France, was never anticlerical or militantly secular; in contrast to Britain, it was not tied to a specific denomination, such as the [[Church of England]]. The Americans borrowed from different religious traditions so that the average American saw no conflict between the two, and deep levels of personal motivation were aligned with attaining national goals.<ref>Robert N. Bellah, "Civil Religion in America", ''Daedalus'' 1967 96(1): 1–21.</ref>

== Parades ==
Since 1867, Brooklyn, New York, has held an annual Memorial Day parade which it claims to be the nation's oldest. [[Grafton, West Virginia]], and [[Ironton, Ohio]] have also had an ongoing parade since 1868. However, the Memorial Day parade in [[Rochester, Wisconsin]], predates both the Doylestown and the Grafton parades by one year (1867).<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://m.journaltimes.com/news/local/rochester-commemorates-fallen-soldiers-in-th-memorial-day-parade/article_2c56cf98-22c7-54e3-9b73-191d155617bf.html|title=Rochester commemorates fallen soldiers in 150th Memorial Day parade|last=Knapp|first=Aaron|work=Journal Times|access-date=June 1, 2017 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2011/05/29/doylestown-hosts-oldest-memorial-day-parade-in-the-country/|title=Doylestown Hosts Oldest Memorial Day Parade In The Country|last=says|first=Lisa|date=May 29, 2011|access-date=June 1, 2017|archive-date=June 25, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170625132803/http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2011/05/29/doylestown-hosts-oldest-memorial-day-parade-in-the-country/|url-status=live}}</ref>

== Poppies ==
{{Main|Remembrance poppy}}
In 1915, following the [[Second Battle of Ypres]], Lieutenant Colonel [[John McCrae]], a physician with the [[Canadian Expeditionary Force]], wrote the poem "[[In Flanders Fields]]". Its opening lines refer to the fields of [[Poppy|poppies]] that grew among the soldiers' graves in [[Flanders]].<ref name="Tucker2014">{{cite book|author=Spencer C. Tucker|title=World War I: The Definitive Encyclopedia and Document Collection &#91;5 volumes&#93;: The Definitive Encyclopedia and Document Collection|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DBwTBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA1061|date=October 28, 2014|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-85109-965-8|pages=1061–}}</ref> Inspired by the poem, [[YWCA USA|YWCA]] worker [[Moina Michael]] attended a YWCA Overseas War Secretaries' conference three years later wearing a silk poppy pinned to her coat and distributed over two dozen more to others present. The [[American Legion|National American Legion]] adopted the poppy as its official symbol of remembrance in 1920.<ref name="bbc10nov06">{{cite news | title =Where did the idea to sell poppies come from?  | work =BBC News | date =November 10, 2006 | url =http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6133312.stm  | access-date=February 18, 2009}}</ref>

==Observance dates (1971–2037)==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="12" | Year || Memorial Day
|-
| 1971 || 1976 || 1982 || || 1993 || 1999 || 2004 || 2010 || || 2021 || 2027 || 2032 || May 31 (week 22)
|-
| || 1977 || 1983 || 1988 || 1994 || || 2005 || 2011 || 2016 || 2022 || || 2033 || May 30 (week 22)
|-
| 1972 || 1978 || || 1989 || 1995 || 2000 || 2006 || || 2017 || 2023 || 2028 || 2034 || May 29 (week 22)

|-
| 1973 || 1979 || 1984 || 1990 || || 2001 || 2007 || 2012 || 2018 || || 2029 || 2035 || May 28 (week 22)
|-
| 1974 || || 1985 || 1991 || 1996 || 2002 || || 2013 || 2019 || 2024 || 2030 || || May 27 (common year week 21, leap year week 22)
|-
| 1975 || 1980 || 1986 || || 1997 || 2003 || 2008 || 2014 || || 2025 || 2031 || 2036 || May 26 (week 21)
|-
| || 1981 || 1987 || 1992 || 1998 || || 2009 || 2015 || 2020 || 2026 || || 2037 || May 25 (week 21)
|}

== Related traditions ==
=== Decoration Day (tradition) ===
{{Main|Decoration Day (tradition)}}

Decoration Days in Southern [[Appalachia]] and [[Liberia]] are a tradition which arose by the 19th century. Decoration practices are localized and unique to individual families, cemeteries, and communities, but common elements that unify the various Decoration Day practices are thought to represent [[syncretism]] of predominantly Christian cultures in 19th century Southern Appalachia with pre-Christian influences from Scotland, Ireland, and African cultures. Appalachian and Liberian cemetery decoration traditions are thought to have more in common with one another than with United States Memorial Day traditions which are focused on honoring the military dead.<ref name="jabbourblog">{{cite web |last=Jabbour |first=Alan |title=What is Decoration Day? |url=https://uncpressblog.com/2010/05/27/what-is-decoration-day/ |website=University of North Carolina Blog |access-date=May 27, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130522202026/https://uncpressblog.com/2010/05/27/what-is-decoration-day/ |archive-date=May 22, 2013 |date=May 27, 2010 }}</ref> Appalachian and Liberian cemetery decoration traditions pre-date the United States Memorial Day holiday.<ref>{{cite web |title=Decoration Day |url=http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-2316 |website=Encyclopedia of Alabama |access-date=May 31, 2019 |ref=encyclopedia-alabama |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181006044219/http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-2316 |archive-date=October 6, 2018 }}</ref>

According to scholars Alan and Karen Jabbour, "the geographic spread ... from the Smokies to northeastern Texas and Liberia, offer strong evidence that the southern Decoration Day originated well back in the nineteenth century. The presence of the same cultural tradition throughout the Upland South argues for the age of the tradition, which was carried westward (and eastward to Africa) by nineteenth-century migration and has survived in essentially the same form till the present."<ref name="JabbourJabbour2010" />

While these customs may have inspired in part rituals to honor military dead like Memorial Day, numerous differences exist between Decoration Day customs and Memorial Day, including that the date is set differently by each family or church for each cemetery to coordinate the maintenance, social, and spiritual aspects of decoration.<ref name="jabbourblog" /><ref name="hooker">{{cite book |last=Hooker |first=Elizabeth R. |date=1933 |title=Religion in the Highlands: Native Churches and Missionary Enterprises in the Southern Appalachian Area |publisher=Home Mission Council |location=New York |page=125 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015012328160 |access-date=September 6, 2019 |archive-date=February 24, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224213341/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015012328160 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Meyer |first=Richard E. |title=American Folklore: An Encyclopedia – Cemeteries |pages=132–34 |isbn= }}{{ISBN missing}}</ref>

==In film, literature, and music==

===Films===
* In ''[[Memorial Day (2012 film)|Memorial Day]]'', a 2012 [[war film]] starring [[James Cromwell]], Jonathan Bennett, and John Cromwell, a character recalls and relives memories of World War II.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Memorial Day |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1694118/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250125154122/https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1694118/ |archive-date=January 25, 2025 |access-date=March 6, 2025 |website=IMDb}}</ref>

===Music===
* American rock band [[Drive-By Truckers]] released a [[Jason Isbell]]–penned song titled "Decoration Day" on their 2003 [[Decoration Day (album)|album of the same title]].{{Citation needed|date=May 2023}}
* American composer [[Charles Ives]] titled the second movement of his ''[[A Symphony: New England Holidays]]'', "Decoration Day".

===Poetry===
Poems commemorating Memorial Day include:
* Francis M. Finch's "The Blue and the Gray" (1867)<ref>{{cite web |website=CivilWarHome.com |url=http://www.civilwarhome.com/blueandgray.html |title=Blue and the Gray |last=Finch |first=Francis |date=1867 |access-date=September 1, 2018 |archive-date=September 16, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180916014949/http://www.civilwarhome.com/blueandgray.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
* [[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]]'s "Decoration Day" (1882)<ref>{{cite news|work=The Atlantic|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/05/a-memorial-day-poem-by-longfellow-from-the-atlantic-june-1882/239636/|title=Memorial Day|author=Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth|access-date=March 10, 2017|archive-date=December 31, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161231221433/http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/05/a-memorial-day-poem-by-longfellow-from-the-atlantic-june-1882/239636/|url-status=live}}</ref>
* [[Michael Anania]]'s "Memorial Day" (1994)<ref>{{cite web| website=PoetryFoundation| url=http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178467| title=Memorial Day| author=Anania, Michael| date=1994| access-date=May 23, 2015| archive-date=May 24, 2015| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150524135401/http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178467| url-status=live}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Holidays|United States}}

===United States===
* [[Remembrance Day at the Gettysburg Battlefield]], an annual honoring of Civil War dead held near the anniversary of the [[Gettysburg Address]]
* [[A Great Jubilee Day]], first held the last Monday in May 1783 ([[American Revolutionary War]])
* [[Armed Forces Day#United States|Armed Forces Day]], third Saturday in May, a more narrowly observed remembrance honoring those currently serving in the U.S. military
* [[Armistice Day]], November 11, the original name of Veterans Day in the United States
* [[Confederate Memorial Day]], observed on various dates in many states in the South in memory of those killed fighting for the Confederacy during the American Civil War
* [[Memorial Day massacre of 1937]], May 30, held to remember demonstrators shot by police in Chicago
* [[Nora Fontaine Davidson]], credited with the first Memorial Day ceremony in Petersburg, Virginia
* [[Patriot Day]], September 11, in memory of people killed in the September 11 attacks
* [[United States military casualties of war]]
* [[Veterans Day]], November 11, honoring American military veterans, both alive and deceased

===Other countries===
* [[ANZAC Day]], April 25, an analogous observance in Australia and New Zealand
* [[Armistice Day]], November 11, the original name of Veterans Day in the United States and Remembrance Day in Canada, the United Kingdom, and other Commonwealth nations
* [[Heroes' Day]], various dates in various countries recognizing national heroes
* [[International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers]], May 29, international observance recognizing United Nations peacekeepers
* [[Remembrance Day]], November 11, a similar observance in Canada, the United Kingdom, and many other Commonwealth nations originally marking the end of World War I
* [[Remembrance of the Dead]] ("Dodenherdenking"), May 4, a similar observance in the Netherlands
* [[Volkstrauertag]] ("People's Mourning Day"), a similar observance in Germany usually in November
* [[Yom HaZikaron|Yom Hazikaron]] (Israeli memorial day), the day before [[Independence Day (Israel)]], around [[Iyar]] 4
* [[Decoration Day (Canada)]], a Canadian holiday that recognizes veterans of Canada's military which has largely been eclipsed by the similar Remembrance Day
* [[Memorial Day (South Korea)]], June 6, the day to commemorate the men and women who died while in military service during the Korean War and other significant wars or battles
* [[Victoria Day]], a Canadian holiday on the last Monday before May 25 each year, lacks the military memorial aspects of Memorial Day but serves a similar function as marking the start of cultural summer

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{Commons category}}
{{Wikiquote}}
{{EB1911 poster|Memorial Day}}
{{Refbegin}}
* Albanese, Catherine. "Requiem for Memorial Day: Dissent in the Redeemer Nation", ''American Quarterly'', Vol. 26, No. 4 (Oct. 1974), pp.&nbsp;386–398 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2711654 in JSTOR] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170112232427/http://www.jstor.org/stable/2711654 |date=January 12, 2017 }}
* Bellah, Robert N. "Civil Religion in America". ''Daedalus'' 1967 96(1): 1–21. [https://web.archive.org/web/20110623223032/http://www.questia.com/read/5012186009?title=Civil%20Religion%20in%20America online edition]
* Blight, David W.  "Decoration Day: The Origins of Memorial Day in North and South" in Alice Fahs and Joan Waugh, eds. ''The Memory of the Civil War in American Culture'' (2004), [https://web.archive.org/web/20110623223107/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst;jsessionid=L6pd2pVHvN4hNrwFhL4rdT3RWpyp8wJMS676zdVQdVhd8Wc0YGTn!-64009190?a=o&d=113423562 online edition] pp.&nbsp;94–129; the standard scholarly history
* Buck, Paul H. ''The Road to Reunion, 1865–1900'' (1937) {{ISBN missing|date=May 2023}}
* Cherry, Conrad. "Two American Sacred Ceremonies: Their Implications for the Study of Religion in America", ''American Quarterly'', Vol. 21, No. 4 (Winter, 1969), pp.&nbsp;739–754 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2711606 in JSTOR] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170112150935/http://www.jstor.org/stable/2711606 |date=January 12, 2017 }}
* Dennis, Matthew. ''Red, White, and Blue Letter Days: An American Calendar'' (2002) {{ISBN missing|date=May 2023}}
* Jabbour, Alan, and Karen Singer Jabbour. ''Decoration Day in the Mountains: Traditions of Cemetery Decoration in the Southern Appalachians'' (University of North Carolina Press; 2010) {{ISBN missing|date=May 2023}}
* Myers, Robert J. "Memorial Day". Chapter 24 in ''Celebrations: The Complete Book of American Holidays''. (1972) {{ISBN missing|date=May 2023}}
* {{cite book |first=Robert Haven |last=Schauffler |title=Memorial Day: Its Celebration, Spirit, and Significance as Related in Prose and Verse, with a Non-sectional Anthology of the Civil War |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HbiFcgAACAAJ |date=1911 |publisher=BiblioBazaar reprint 2010 |isbn=9781176839045 }}
{{Refend}}

==External links==
{{Wiktionary|Memorial Day}}
* [https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/36/116 36 USC 116. ''Memorial Day''] (designation law)
* [https://www.alraimedia.com/article/1689238/%D9%85%D8%AD%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%AA/%D8%A3%D8%AE%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D9%85%D8%AD%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A9/%D8%B3%D9%81%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%83%D9%88%D9%8A%D8%AA-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%B4%D9%86%D8%B7%D9%86-%D8%AA%D8%B4%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%83-%D8%A8%D9%81%D8%B9%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D9%8A%D9%88%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B0%D9%83%D8%B1%D9%89-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D9%85%D9%8A%D8%B1%D9%83%D9%8A Kuwait's participation in the American Memorial Day]

{{Federal holidays in the United States}}
{{Public holidays in the United States}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1868 establishments in the United States]]
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[[Category:Holidays related to the American Civil War]]
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[[Category:Observances honoring victims of war]]
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