Vol.V, No.5
www.realestatenewsline.com
May 2019
What Do You Really Know About Memorial Day? ByPatFarrell
PRSRT STD U.S. Postage PAID San Antonio, Texas Paid Permit #1590
The month of May is upon us and we are all aware that Mother’s Day will soon be celebrated on May 12th, but, did you know that this month is also officially recognized as “National Military AppreciationMonth(NMAM)?”Thisnationalrecognition is the result of legislation introduced by Senator John McCain in 1999 that spurred the Senate and House to each adopt resolutions calling upon Americans to recognize and honor our service members and urged the President to also call on the people of the United States to observe NMAM. The month begins with Loyalty Day on May 1st, which is a day set aside to reflect on the proud heritage of ourAmerican freedoms and to reaffirm our loyalty to the United States. Following that is Public Service Recognition Week, celebrated during the first full week in May (May 5th – May 11th), which is a week set aside to honor the men and women who serve our nation as federal, state, county and local government employees. And then, VE Day (Victory in Europe Day) on May 8th, recalls the day in 1945, when the Germans unconditionally surrendered to the
Allies, effectively ending World War II in Europe. Also, the Friday before Mother’s Day (this year on May 10th) is one to honor military spouses as our nation recognizes the important part that military families play in keeping our Armed Forces strong. Although not an official observance, Armed Forces Week is the one that leads up toArmed Forces Day, a federal holiday that is celebrated each year on the third Saturday in May, and this year will be on May 18th. Armed Forces Day is when we thank and honor everyone who is now serving in the U.S. Military branches: Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Navy and Marines. But, the final tribute to the military for the month occurs each year on the last Monday in May (this year on May 27th), a day when we stop to remember those men and women who died while in their service to our country. Memorial Day may be the last of these special days in May that recognize military, but it is also the one that has been observed the longest. It had its beginning shortly after the Civil War ended in 1865 after claiming more lives than any conflict in U.S. history (620,000), a number which was also responsible for the need to establish the country’s first of its national cemeteries. As to how, when and where the observation of Memorial Day actually began, it is an issue still in dispute among more than two dozen places in the United States. Honoring our wartime dead from the Civil War may have started in Charleston, SC, on May 1, 1865, when a group of former slaves dug up the bodies of dead Union Soldiers from a mass grave in a Confederate prison camp and worked for days to give each of them a proper burial, in gratitude for having fought for their freedom. Immediately following the burials, black children led several thousand people as they sang and marched in tribute and celebration of the end of war time hostilities in this country. In other areas of the country it became the practice for Americans in towns and cities throughout the country to hold springtime tributes to fallen soldiers by decorating their graves with flowers and reciting prayers. However, Columbus MS; Macon, GA; Richmond, VA; Boalsburg, PAand Carbondale, IL, to name just a few,
still claim they were the “first” to honor the war dead and should thus be considered the “Birthplace of Memorial Day,” and they continue to proclaim so on stone monuments and plaques within the city and also on their website. In 1866, on May 5th, Maj. Gen. John A. Logan, head of theAssociation called the GrandArmy of the Republic (GAR), declared that Decoration Day, on May 30th, each year was the time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers as they would be in bloom all over the country by then. The first large observance of the Day was held that year at Arlington National Cemetery, and was centered around a mourning-draped veranda at the Arlington mansion, which was once the home of Gen. Robert E. Lee, who presided over the ceremonies. Following speeches, members of the GAR and children from the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Orphan Home, totaling about 5,000 participants, made their way through the cemetery, reciting prayers and singing hymns, while strewing flowers on the graves of more than 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers. As General Logan’s Decoration Day was dedicated primarily to honor fallen Union Soldiers, many of the Southern states set aside other times to honor their fallen Confederate Soldiers: Mississippi celebrates Confederate Memorial Day on the last Monday of April, Alabama on the fourth Monday of April and Georgia on April 26. North and South Carolina observe it on May 10, Louisiana on June 3, while Tennessee calls that date Confederate Decoration Day. Texas celebrates Confederate Heroes Day January 19 and Virginia calls the last Monday in May Confederate Memorial Day. Some of these names have been since changed due to the recent temper of the times. Waterloo, NY, however, was officially recognized as having held the first formal, village wide, annual observance of a day dedicated to honoring the war dead, first by New York Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller on March 7, 1966 and following that, on May 26, 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson, signed a Presidential Proclamation nationally recognizing Waterloo as the Birthplace of Memorial Day.
Observing Memorial Day on May 30 each year changed in 1971 when it became a national holiday, scheduled for the last Monday in May to comply with the newly enacted Uniform Monday Holiday Act. While Memorial Day was originally initiated because of Civil War deaths, the observance has been perpetuated by the country’s continued involvement in other foreign conflicts including the World Wars I and II, and those in the Middle East and the Far East areas where the combined total of our countrymen’s deaths as a result of them has now exceeded 624,000. And, as was the case in the mid-1800s, there are fortunately still many in America who continue to keep our national cemeteries tidy and the graves of our fallen military decorated. Were you aware that in the year 2000, President Clinton signed the “National Moment of Remembrance Act” that designates 3:00 p.m. local time on Memorial Day each year as a time for all Americans, wherever they are, to pause for one minute in an act of national unity?And, as one might anticipate, our Nation’s flag is to be flown at half-staff on Memorial Day, but did you know that it only flies at half-staff from sunrise to noon, when it is then raised to full staff from noon to sunset? This is a rather unique custom which honors our war dead during all of the morning hours and honors our living veterans for the remainder of the day. Finally, let us not forget the tradition of wearing a red poppy on Memorial Day in remembrance ofAmerica’s war dead, a practice started after WW I that was inspired by the poem “In Flanders Fields” written by John McCrae, a Canadian soldier. As you go about your business this Memorial Day (May 27) it would be great if you were to take note that the flags are at half-staff during the morning hours or that you perhaps do find a red poppy to wear on your lapel. It is however more important that you remember to pause at 3pm, wherever you are on that day so you can, from your heart, thank all those who have paid the ultimate price to allow you to go freely about your business.And, those thoughts of gratitude that you do express on Memorial Day should be carried with you throughout every day of all the ensuing years that you remain FREE!!