[Interest] Memories Are Made of This

MEMORIAL DAY

On the topic of controversial matters, here we have information about Memorial Day, and who in the world would expect that to be controversial, but there you have it. I've always said, if the newspaper prints an editorial in favor of breathing, you can be sure that people will write in angry letters in opposition to it. All we wondered at work was why it was sometimes observed before May 30 and sometimes after, and you would think there would be a simple answer to that, but instead it opens up a whole can of worms, as follows - ======================================= Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11, and was first observed on 30 May 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate solders at Arlington National Cemetery. The first state to officially recognize the holiday was New York in 1873. By 1890, it was recognized by all of the northern states. The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I (when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war). It is now celebrated in almost every State on the last Monday in May (passed by Congress with the National Holiday Act, P.L. 90-363 in 1971 to ensure a three-day weekend for Federal holidays), though several southern states have an additional separate day for honoring the Confederate war dead: January 19 in Texas; April 26 in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Mississippi; May 10 in South Carolina; and June 3 (Jefferson Davis' birthday) in Louisiana and Tennessee. ===================================== So there you have it, and better late than never, I suppose. And speaking of better late than never, I'd say that the Revolutionary War casualties were lucky that World War I came along, and changed it from just the Civil War to instead all the wars, because obviously the colonial soldiers weren't getting their own day, no how. If even after 100 years, they couldn't hitch a ride on the Civil War coattails, then they didn't stand a chance, and the War of 1812 casualties even less. This is the kind of thing that makes people say it's an ill wind that blows no good.