For many students, Memorial Day is the unofficial start of summer, a three-day weekend for relaxation. But before you dive into summer break, it’s worth taking a moment to look at the history behind the day, and what it actually represents.
Memorial Day didn’t start as a generic holiday. It was made in the aftermath of the American Civil War, a conflict that killed more lives than any other in U.S. history. By the late 1860s, communities across the country began gathering in the springtime to clean up cemeteries and decorate the graves of fallen soldiers with flowers.
In 1868, General John A. Logan, leader of a prominent organization for Northern Civil War veterans, formalized this practice by declaring May 30 as Decoration Day. It was chosen specifically because flowers would be in full bloom across the country. On the very first major observance at Arlington National Cemetery, about 5,000 participants decorated the graves of 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers.
While the holiday originally focused only on those lost during the Civil War, everything changed after World War I. The scale of the conflict forced a shift in how the nation mourned. Decoration Day gradually became known as Memorial Day, and its focus expanded to honor all American military personnel who died in any war.
In 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which moved Memorial Day from its traditional May 30 date to the last Monday in May. This change, which took effect in 1971, officially established the three-day weekend we know today.
“It’s easy to just view it as a free day off,” says freshman Rensho Sato-Choi. “But taking a moment to acknowledge the history is a great thing to do!”
