A preview of Memorial Day

Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a federal holiday in the United States.  We celebrate it tomorrow, Monday May 28 this year.  It appears we in the U.S. are the only country to honor our dead on this day.  It is always celebrated on the last Monday of May.

Many countries celebrate Armistice Day, Remembrance Day, or Veterans Day, which is celebrated on November 11, regardless of the day of the week on which it falls.  We in the states call it Veterans Day after a bill in Congress in June, 1954 replaced "Armistice" with "Veterans," and it has been known as Veterans Day ever since.  Remember, it is Veterans, not Veteran's or Veterans'.

The difference is, Memorial Day celebrates and honors those brave men and women who died for our country, especially those who died in battle or the result of wounds resulting from a battle, while Veterans Day celebrates all men and women who have served our/their country, whether living or dead, and whether they served in battle or not.

The practice of celebrating Memorial Day can be traced to the end of the Civil War, but after World War I, the day expanded to honor those who died in all American wars.  In the drawing above, two men, depicting survivors of America's Civil War, one from the south and one from the north, join together to see a baseball game.

Celebrating Memorial Day in 1923, after WWI.

Another print taken at the same time as above (1923).

A third shot taken from the stands at the same location (no location specified) on Memorial Day, 1923.

Memorial Day, 1918 from an unknown location.

Memorial Day poster for May 30, 1937.

Gloucester, Massachusetts on Memorial Day, 1943.

Memorial Day in Morrill County, Nebraska in 1908.

All images, photos, and drawings above are from the Library of Congress web site.

I created this piece awhile back after I read the poem In Flanders Field by Canadian poet John McCrae.

In Flanders’ fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

In the States, the poppy is traditionally worn on Memorial Day, not Veterans Day to honor the dead.  According to The Farmer's Almanac:

The origin of the red poppy as a modern-day symbol of this day was actually the idea of an American woman, Miss Moina Michael.  

Also per The Farmer's Almanac:

In war-torn battlefields, the red field poppy (papaver rhoeas) was one of the first plants to grow. Its seeds scattered in the wind and sat dormant in the ground, only germinating when the ground is disturbed—as it was by the very brutal fighting during World War 1.

If you live in the United States, I wish you a happy Memorial Day tomorrow.  If you live in the U.K., I wish you a lovely Bank Holiday.  If you live outside the U.S. or U.K., I wish you a wonderful Monday.