Monday, May 30, 2011

Memorial Day

     In 1874 Congress made Memorial Day a legal holiday but where did it begin? I found two possibilities.
  • The first one says it began on May 5, 1866 when village flags in Waterloo, NY were flown at half staff and interspersed with evergreen boughs and black bunting as residents decorated the graves of Civil War dead with flowers. There was a parade by some civic and veterans groups, speeches by Union General John B. Murray and a local minister.
  • The other one took place in 1867 when women at Columbus, Mississippi, decorated the graves of dead soldier heroes of both the North and the South. From there, there began a widespread feeling that a special day should be set apart for paying tribute to those who had given their lives in the Civil War. And so General John A. Logan, commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, issued an order designating May 30, 1868, for "Strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country, and whose bodies now lie in most every city, village, or hamlet church yard in the land."

      What ever the reason, today is Memorial Day so let us remember those who have died in wars gone by and be thankful for their services to our country.

      Dear Lord, Thank you
  • For those who gave their lives for the freedoms you have granted us

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