Memorial Day

The day is celebrated to honour the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military and the current members of the armed forces and their families.

Memorial Day was formerly known as Decoration Day. The name was officially changed in the 1960s by the federal government. However, the name “Memorial Day” gradually increased in popularity after World War 2.

Being the last Monday in May, Memorial Day signifies the official start of summer for many people.

How Memorial Day is celebrated

The day traditionally starts with morning services at cemeteries and memorials. The day is a day for of taking time to remember the men and women in uniform who died while serving their country. This is done in many ways:

Many volunteer at veterans’ hospitals or schools, or they simply spend time with their families doing what they enjoy doing most. It's a long weekend filled with parades, barbecues, picnics, and more.

People wear red, white and blue because these are the colours of the American flag which symbolise freedom, liberty and justice for all.

Memorial Day is not only a day to honor those who have sacrificed their lives but also a day that allows us to recognize all those soldiers who are still fighting for us abroad today. Many visit friends and family that have loved ones that are soldiers.

Many people also visit historic sites like Arlington Cemetery, the Logan Museum and Washington DC.

History of Memorial Day

There is no war in the history of the United States that have claimed more lives than the American Civil War from 1861 to 1865. In total the war claimed the life of between 620,000 and 750,000 soldiers.

Memorial Day was first established on May 5, 1868 by the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). GAR was an organisation of veterans from the Union army, Union Navy and the Marines who served in the America Civil War. The GAR Commander-in-Chief, General John A. Logan is regarded as the most important advocate in the movement to recognise Memorial Day as an official national holiday.

In the beginning, Memorial Day was observed on May 30 every year. The GAR proposed this date because they wanted flowers to be blooming all over the country. When Commander-in-Chief John A. Logan and Adjutant General N. P. Chipman issued General Order Number 11, they stated that Decoration Day “is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades, who died in defence of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet church-yard in the land” (1).

A few years before WW2, in 1938, Congress recognised Decoration Day to be a federal holiday. After the war and the casualties that followed, the name “Memorial Day” became more popular and it eventually became the official holiday name in 1967. The day is still being celebrated on May 30 each year.

The year after, on June 28, 1968, Congress enacted the Uniform Holidays Bill, moving three federal holidays to a Monday. One of these moved holidays was Memorial Day, and since the Bill passed, the day has been observed the last Monday in May.

Banks are closed, Stores are open

As Presidents Day is a federal holiday many banks, schools, libraries are closed. Even NYSE and NASDAQ is closed for trading. As all non-essential federal workers have the day off, expect everything run by the federal government to be closed as well. This means that places like the U.S Post Office and DMV is closed.

Major chains and stores usually remain open. The same goes for restaurants. However, it is not unusual for smaller, local shops to take the day off.

Some interesting questions

During our research around Memorial Day we saw that many have some interesting questions around the day and events happening in relation to it. We have summarised some of the more common questions below.

Why was Memorial Day previously called Decoration Day?

Memorial Day was originally called Decoration Day because people should spend the day decorating the graves of the soldiers who had died in the American Civil War. The Civil War ended on May 9, 1865 and the tradition of decorating graves with flowers began that same month.

Who was the first to observe Memorial Day?

The first national commemoration of Memorial Day, ordered by General John A. Logan, was held on May 30, 1868. The commemoration took place at Arlington National Cemetery.

Many communities, towns and cities claim to be the first to observe Memorial Day, but few can provide evidence for their claim. In 1996, David Blight, a Yale University professor of American History, discovered that the first Memorial Day commemoration was organised by a group of Black people who was freed from enslavement shortly before the Civil War was over.

Reports found in The New York Tribune and The Charleston Courier show that the first Memorial Day commemoration took place on May 1, 1865. About 10,000 people, mostly freed slaves, marched in a parade around Washington Race Course and Jockey Club in Charleston, South Carolina.

How to say “happy Memorial Day”

Saying “Happy” before a holiday name works for many holidays, but “Happy Memorial Day” is like saying “Happy funeral”. It should be avoided. Instead, remember what this day is about and know that many people have either lost someone in war or know someone that does. Some ways you can say “Happy Memorial Day” without being offensive:

I hope you have a good weekend

I wish you all the best this weekend

I wish you a honourable Memorial Day

If you know that the person you are talking to have served in the armed forces or have lost a loved one, you could add something in the lines of “thank you for your service”.

What is “Flags In” on Memorial Day?

“Flags in” is a tradition taking place at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day where a short flag is placed at each and every headstone. As there are about 228,000 headstones, the job of placing the flag require every available soldier in the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, nicknamed The Old Guard.

Every flag is carefully placed one boot length from the headstones base. After Memorial Day is over, every flag is removed and the cemetery does not open to the public until the job is done.

Varying Dates

Memorial Day in United States of America is not a holiday with a fixed calendar date, meaning the exact date varies depending on a rule. The rule for Memorial Day is that the day is observed on the Monday before June 1. This, in turn, means that the date for this day can vary between May 25 and May 31. See the table below to find the exact date for the next few years.