Decoration Day First
After the Civil War, Decoration Day became a national holiday observed on May 30th. Those left behind decorated the graves of Civil War soldiers as well as their loved ones laid to rest in the cemetery. It was a family activity, and the girl in the 1910 postcard adorns tombstones with roses. Decoration Day expanded to include the fallen from World War I and later all wars where American soldiers lost their lives. Decoration Day became Memorial Day, and afterward the date was changed to the last Monday in May to give Americans a three-day weekend.
I don’t decorate my daughter Alix’s grave. But I remember her on Memorial Day along with the lost soldiers. And every day becomes Memorial Day as I grieve Alix and feel both her loss and her presence.
Do you decorate or visit the graves of your dead?
Hi Julie, maybe I’m the first to your post this time! I go to the natural burial ground where Dom is. No need to decorate his plot, nature has done that already. Tomorrow will be the day we buried him, 5 years ago. Once again, it will be blanketed in yellow for my visit to my buttercup boy ❤️❤️❤️
Hi, Julie
I just wrote about Decoration Day as the origin of Memorial Day yesterday. Great minds think alike. I hope you had a restful day yesterday. Personally, it took me some time to be comfortable going to Divine's gravesite. But I've come to see tending to gravesite as an activity of care.