Changes

In the first few years after the Civil War in the 1860s, the sheer number of dead people who died during the conflict was still a difficult experience for many American families. The war had led to many people taking time to remember their dead, during spring as flowers blossomed, and lay small floral commemorations on their fallen loved ones. People would also gather, often entire communities, to clean the graves of fallen loved ones and make sure the graves were looked after from the conflict. The practice of laying flowers on graves had originated is a very ancient tradition and, by May, all across the United States flowers were ever present. This began to make May a type of unofficial commemoration of the dead in times of war, at least for some communities, particularly in remembering the Civil War. Most likely, not no one single community started the practice of celebrating their loved ones in the spring, but it was likely widespread. Some have said that this is when the commemorative day began to be called Decoration Day. In fact, it could be an originally Southern tradition, where it meant you would clean and decorate the graves with flowers for fallen soldiers. However, it was not celebrated on a specific day (Figure 1).<ref>For more on the origins of Memorial Day, see: Ansary, M. T. (1999).<i> Memorial Day</i>. Des Plaines, Ill.: Heinemann Library.</ref>