We still called it Decoration Day when I was a kid. It was a day of remembrance for my family. We’d pack a picnic lunch and go to the cemetery to weed around the graves and then we’d leave fresh-picked flowers in foil-wrapped Mason jars on the headstones of our deceased relatives.
A country cemetery on Memorial Day in the 1960s was festive with bouquets. The graves of fallen soldiers were marked with small American flags.
My family has been lucky. While many of my relatives have served, no one close to me has died in combat in recent memory. Still, the cemeteries always fluttered with the red-white-and blue. So many have given their lives for the cause of freedom…
“As America celebrates Memorial Day, we pay tribute to those who have given their lives in our nation’s wars.”
~ John M. McHugh,
Today I live far away from the burial places of my family members. I wonder if people still throw blankets on the ground after paying respects to the dead and contemplate the sacrifices made by so many so that the rest of us can live free?
Memorial Day has an interesting history. Read more about it in these articles.
- http://www.usmemorialday.org/?page_id=2
- https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/holidays/reference/memorial-day/