Memorial Day

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Part of the history Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11, and was first observed on 30 May 1868, when 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 (passed by Congress with the National Holiday Act of 1971 (P.L. 90 - 363) to ensure a three day weekend for Federal holidays), 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 10 in South Carolina; and June 3 (Jefferson Davis' birthday) in Louisiana and Tennessee. See more about it on this page http://www.usmemorialday.org/backgrnd.html When LIving in Tenn. I never herad of June the 5th being the day. For they have some many different people in so many different grace yards that ,there is a decoration day every Sunday of the month. THe first one I went to there was and is still the Last Sunday of the month for the graveyard hubby and parents are in.THey used to have a big dinner spread out every one brought something to eat and all the people that had people in that certain grave yard wopuld eat and visit and talk about their loved ones. They have now took down the Pinic area at the Church and some one in that church has the people come to thier house I f they want. I miss the good old days where it was all done on the church grounds and also visit grave site while there for in the south every church has is own grave sites.