While there are 10 federal holidays created by Congress-including Memorial Day-they apply only to Federal employees and the District of Columbia. Federal law declared “Memorial Day” the official name in 1967.Ĭalling Memorial Day a “national holiday” is a bit of a misnomer. The name Memorial Day goes back to 1882, but the name Decoration Day didn’t disappear until after World War II. The holiday was long known as Decoration Day for the practice of decorating graves with flowers, wreaths, and flags. 11, which set aside “for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion.” The orders expressed hope that the observance would be “kept up from year to year while a survivor of the war remains to honor the memory of his departed comrades.”Ĥ.

On May 5, 1868, he issued General Orders No. General Logan, the speaker at the Carbondale gathering in 1866, also was commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Union veterans. – Waterloo, New York began holding an annual community service on May 5, 1866 – Also in April 1866, in Carbondale, Illinois, 219 Civil War veterans marched through town in memory of the fallen to Woodlawn Cemetery, where Union hero Major General John A. – In April 1866, women from Columbus, Mississippi, laid flowers on the graves of both Union and Confederate soldiers – In 1864, women from Boalsburg, Pennsylvania, put flowers on the graves of their dead from the just-fought Battle of Gettysburg. Memorial Day was a response to the unprecedented carnage of the Civil War, in which some 620,000 soldiers on both sides died.Īlthough many towns claimed the title, it was Waterloo that won congressional recognition in 1966 as the “birthplace of Memorial Day. And please make time to celebrate, honor, and remember the heroes who gave all for our freedom.

Memoria day 2017