Memorial Day in the USA

My blog tracker lets me know that I have visitors from all over the globe, so I thought that I would share some knowledge about the US's Memorial Day holiday. I was listening to the radio yesterday and the DJ broadcasting (who is an American) didn't even understand what the holiday was for...

Memorial Day is meant to be a solemn day of remembrance to honor the US Soldiers who lost their lives in a war. It is not a day to honor any US Soldier - that day is Veteran's Day and the two are confused often.

Memorial Day was originally established to honor the soldiers who died during the Civil War and was originally known as Decoration Day.
In 1966, Congress declared Waterloo, NY as the originator of the holiday in 1866.
In 1971, Memorial Day was declared a National Holiday to be celebrated on the last Monday in May.

According to CNN, approximately 1.2 Million Americans have died from the Civil War to present day wars (https://www.cnn.com/2013/05/23/us/memorial-day-fast-facts/index.html).  

I remember, honor and give thanks that those men and women stepped up to defend the USA and gave the ultimate sacrifice to allow my fellow Americans and I to live as we do today.


Namaste.