I found this cartoon online...but what it doesn't include is the original reason Memorial Day to come into being. Memorial Day was originally known as Decoration Day (love that name!) and was originally a day of remembrance to honor those who died in the Civil War.
There were 620,000 of them.
That's a lot. A whole lot. That's more than all of our other wars, combined.
Decoration Day was first observed in 1868 but wasn't an official American holiday until 1971. After World War I, Memorial Day changed from honoring only the Civil War fallen to honoring all of our fallen heros.
We cherish too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led,
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies.
Moina Michael
It's easy to think that Memorial Day is a day when all of our dead are honored; that's what I always thought, as a kid! Really, it's the day we honor the heros who fell, protecting America's freedom.
Fly your flag proudly...and remember.
