MEMORIAL DAY

What does Memorial Day stand for? A day off? The start of summer? Parades and picnics? You can finally start wearing white shoes again? Although most Americans don't know much about the purpose or history of this day. Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on May 5th 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic and was first observed on May 30th 1868. Flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. The first state to officially recognize the holiday was New York in 1873. By 1890 it was recognized by all of the northern states. The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I (when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war). It is now celebrated in almost every State on the last Monday in May, though several southern states have an additional separate day for honoring the Confederate war dead: January 19 in Texas; April 26 in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi; May 19 in South Carolina; and June 3 in Louisiana and Tennessee. Now that I've filled you in on some facts about Memorial Day....... God Bless all our fallen heros!