This month, Memorial Day will be observed for the 150th year. Over the last century and a half, the way that the nation recognizes this special day has changed in some ways and remained the same in others.
Sara Amy Leach, NCA’s senior historian, shares the origin and long history of Memorial Day, reminding us of the holiday’s true meaning. Please enjoy Sara’s piece on Memorial Day, and join us in recognizing the importance of why we observe this day.
May culminates with Memorial Day when Americans remember service members in death (Veterans Day is for the living). The occasion began as a wave of post-Civil War appreciation in 1868. Today it is a national holiday observed on the last Monday of the month and the unofficial start of summer. There are still parades with Veterans and service members, patriotic concerts, and abundant U.S. flags. But in recent years these are blurred by less-patriotic activities: a beach weekend, backyard barbeques, retail bonanzas. Even U.S. News and Report just reported, “Happily, Memorial Day sales seldom disappoint.” It is hard to track how we got here from what began as a national day designated for mourning, but old-fashioned patriotism seems to be on the rise.
The human loss associated with the four-year Civil War is still unrivaled: 2 percent of the U.S. population died, 14 percent of all combatants. The Army’s diligence was remarkable. It combed
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