Created by Nebula at the Enchanted Hollow

This site salutes ALL veterans...no matter their race, sex, color or creed...and recognizes ALL such contributions to America's freedoms...

We give thanks on Memorial Day that we live in a free nation and honor those who gave their lives for that blessing. Memorial Day is also called Decoration Day. Since World War I, it has also been called Poppy Day. Volunteers sell small, red artificial flowers as a fund-raiser for disabled veterans.

The location of the first observance of Memorial Day is in dispute. Some claim the custom of honoring war dead began in Boalsburg, Pennsylvania. Others claim the custom was originated by some Southern women who placed flowers on the graves of both Union and Confederate soldiers after the Civil War. According to one writer, the first Memorial Day service took place on May 30, 1866, on Belle Isle, a burial ground for Union soldiers in the St. James River, at Richmond, Virginia. The school superintendent and the mayor planned the program of hymns and speeches and had the burial ground decorated with flowers. In 1966, however, the U.S. government proclaimed that Waterloo, New York, was the birthplace of Memorial Day. On May 5, 1865, the people of Waterloo had honored soldiers who had died in the Civil War.

In 1868, General John A. Logan, commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic (an organization of Union veterans of the Civil War), named May 30th as a special day to honor the graves of Union soldiers. The selection of May 30th is attributed to a Virginian of French descent, Cassandra Oliver Moncure, who may have selected this date because it was "The Day of Ashes" in France-the day that Napoleon's remains were returned to France from St. Helena.

The custom of placing flowers on graves is an old one that exists in many countries. Today, almost everywhere around the globe, people have a special day to honor not only those who gave their lives in battle, but also family members and friends whom they wish to remember.

The Northern states and some Southern states celebrate Memorial Day on the last Monday in May. This date was made a federal holiday in 1971. Some Southern states have Memorial Day celebrations to honor Confederate soldiers who died in the Civil War. Mississippi and Alabama celebrate Confederate Memorial Day on the last Monday in April. In Florida and Georgia, the date is April 26. May 10 is Memorial Day in North and South Carolina, and the holiday is June 3 in Kentucky, Louisiana, and Tennessee. Texas observes Confederate Heroes Day on January 19 (Robert E. Lee's birthday).

"Your silent tents of green
We deck with fragrant flowers;
Yours has the suffering been,
The memory shall be ours."

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Eulogy for a Veteran

Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there, I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.

I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the Gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the mornings hush,
I am the swift uplifting rush
of quiet birds in circled flight,
I am the soft stars that shine at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there, I did not die.

-Author Unknown

 

Memorial Day "These heroes are dead. They died for liberty-they died for us. They are at rest. They sleep in the land they made free, under the flag they rendered stainless, under the solemn pines, the sad hemlocks, the tearful willows, the embracing vines. They sleep beneath the shadow of the clouds, careless alike of sunshine or storm, each in the windowless palace of rest. Earth may run red with other wars-they are at peace. In the midst of the battles, in the roar of conflicts, they found the serenity of death." ~Author Unknown

"The greatest glory of a free-born people is to transmit that freedom to their children."