Originally
known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War and
became an official federal holiday in 1971. Many Americans observe Memorial Day
by visiting cemeteries or memorials, holding family gatherings and
participating in parades. Unofficially, it marks the beginning of the summer
season.
Early Observances of Memorial Day
The Civil War, which ended in the spring of 1865,
claimed more lives than any conflict in U.S. history and required the
establishment of the country’s first national cemeteries.
By
the late 1860s, Americans in various towns and cities had begun holding
springtime tributes to these countless fallen soldiers, decorating their graves
with flowers and reciting prayers.
Did you know? Each year on
Memorial Day a national moment of remembrance takes place at 3:00 p.m. local
time.
It
is unclear where exactly this tradition originated; numerous different
communities may have independently initiated the memorial gatherings. And some
records show that one of the earliest Memorial Day commemoration was organized by a group of freed slaves
in Charleston, South Carolina less than a month after the Confederacy surrendered in 1865.
Nevertheless, in 1966 the federal government declared Waterloo, New York, the official birthplace of Memorial Day.
More History
