How did Memorial Day develop?

Figure 1. An early sketch of Decoration Day.

Memorial Day is a US holiday honoring those who served the country in its armed conflicts. Its origins are in the years after the Civil War, but for decades it was not a US holiday. Its meaning has also shifted and has become the unofficial start to summer in the United States.

Origins of Memorial Day

In the first few years after the Civil War in the 1860s, the sheer number of dead 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 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 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).

A key turning point in making the end of May, and eventually the last Monday of May, the official holiday was General John Logan's directive, a prominent Union Civil War general, to establish in the military as May 30th as the day to remember fallen soldiers. He did this in 1868, by which time many had already been decorating graves of fallen loved ones during the month of May. General Garfield, another general from the Civil War and later 20th president who was assassinated in office, made the first semi-official speech in 1868 on May 30th at Arlington Cemetery. There, over 5000 people came and who were relatives for both sides of the conflict to celebrate 20,000 soldiers buried there.

While already the early celebrations of what initially became called Decoration Day were celebrated by many Northern states, the celebration of May 30th did not catch on as prominently in the South. In fact, Southern states often had similar celebrations but they held them on different days. Some of the traditions in Southern states that differed, such as communal decoration and cleaning of graves, continue to this day. In the North, individual states adopted May 30th as official state holidays, but at a federal level it was not recognized. Perhaps this was due to lingering bitterness between the North and South, where states in the South preferred to have their own Decoration day.The bitter years of Reconstruction and white bitterness towards freed slaves did not help, and animosity such as derision of so-called Carpetbaggers from the North moving to the South reflected the years after the Civil War were difficult, where socially the country was still divided. Decoration Day, nevertheless, developed as a specific holiday devoted to the lost in the Civil War rather than other conflicts, as that war was by far the bloodiest in the United States' history at that point.

Later Development

Figure 2. Decoration Day soon began to change to celebrating all war dead at the time of World War I.

What began to change the meaning of what was then called Decoration Day were the events of World War I (Figure 2). Once again, a bloody conflict consumed the United States. While World War I was not a very long war for the United States, it did endure relatively heavy casualties in the tumultuous last year of the conflict. Many families endured great loss, with over 116,000 deaths, although many of those were due to disease, including the pandemic flu that had struck during the war. The large number of dead in a short period, where soldiers were from throughout the United States, in a way did help the country come together after the the Civil War had led to bitterness. People began to celebrate not just those who died in the Civil War but also World War I and other conflicts, including more minor ones such as the Spanish-American War, where all fallen soldiers began to be remembered. Decoration Day on May 30th began to be celebrated across the United States and not just the North.

With the popularity of celebrating war dead on May 30th, the holiday became official at the state level in many places. The holiday gained even more popularity after World War II, when another great conflict had consumed so many individuals. As nearly every state had adopted May 30th, this made the holiday fixed for many. One problem, however, is May 30th often fell on different days throughout the week, where individuals, particularly those who began to travel for work, found it disruptive. For many, it was an important day to come to specific graves to remember the fallen. Many people began to not only visit graves of fallen soldiers but also their loved ones who died of other causes. In effect, it began to be more of a commemorative day for departed loved ones for many as well as a day to celebrate soldiers who died in conflict. For those who traveled for work or who had moved, it was often difficult to visit the graves of their departed loved ones or fallen soldiers. Other traditions had also caught on during this time, such as placing small US flags on war-related graves. This seems to have caught on by World War II, where active service members would remember fallen soldiers by placing flags. The general public began to follow this practice.

Modern Meaning

In the 1968, Congress moved to make what was now becoming called Memorial Day a uniform holiday. The last Monday of May was chose as it was the closest date to May 30th that also made the holiday give workers a three-day weekend, ample time to celebrate their departed loved ones. In some ways, the act by Congress could have been prompted by what was becoming an unpopular war in Vietnam. Nevertheless, the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which was the act passed by Congress that made the day a federal holiday, took some years before it went into effect. In 1971, the first federally recognized Memorial Day occurred on the last Monday of May.

For many, Memorial Day has continued to be an occasion to visit departed loved ones. City parades, which had already developed in the years after the Civil War with military-style affairs, continued and were elaborated on the tradition now that it was a federal holiday. Chicago, New York, and Washington often have had the biggest parades. The tradition of having an official commemoration at Arlington National Cemetery, which was a cemetery established in the Civil War, included the president making a speech. Now, it has become almost expected for the president to visit Arlington National Cemetery to make a Memorial Day speech to remember fallen soldiers from past and often, these days, current conflicts.

Barbecues and family gatherings were established as long weekends began to be the norm in the 1970s. Already in the earlier years people had gathered for family meals that sometimes included barbecues on Memorial/Decorative Day. For many, the occasion also often sees improving weather and a long, three-day weekend offers opportunity for mini-getaways. This began to make Memorial Day the unofficial start of summer, where at least many colleges at least had by then finished their courses. During the Vietnam War, not only did the dead gain national attention during Memorial Day, but prisoners of war (POWs) and missing soldiers were a major concern. Memorial Day was seen as an opportunity, by veterans associations and families in particular, as a time to remember the missing and POWs and not just the officially dead. Thus, today Memorial Day is often a time to reflect on those who might still be missing in conflicts as well as those who have been official listed as dying in battle or as a casualty of war.

Summary

The nature of conflict, from the Civil War to World War I and then the Vietnam War, in some way changed the character of Memorial Day. It is true that the core celebration of the dead who served their country has never changed, but conflicts began to also be known for those who went missing, particularly the Vietnam War. Others also began to see the holiday as a time to reflect on their departed loved ones. What began as an unofficial spring time for remembrance transformed into a widespread holiday and celebration after General Logan's declaration. The years after World War I finally saw the holiday gaining greater significance to some Southern states and beginning to reflect the remembrance of dead in all conflicts.