Barn draped with the American flag, Stonington, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman
Although memorial occasions for fallen soldiers had long existed in some form, it was on the heels of Civil War that hallowed days of remembrance arose with great frequency in communities across the American countryside. Known informally as Decoration Days, these ceremonies traditionally called for adorning the graves of fallen soldiers with flowers.
When the federal government sought to formalize and unify these assorted ceremonies in 1868, the date of May 30 was chosen. As for why that day was selected, some say it was because the date lacked any association with a specific battle, while others note that late May ensured a wealth of blooming flowers for decoration.
The holiday has endured many changes since those early days. “Memorial Day” gradually supplanted “Decoration Day” as the preferred name, the date was moved from the 30th to the last Monday in May and, of greatest importance, the graves of fallen soldiers have grown ever more numerous. What hasn’t changed is the significance and the sentiment which it embodies. And so, I leave you to the upcoming Memorial Day with the words of poet Kate Sherwood, penned in her 1885 work “Camp-fire, Memorial-day and Other Poems”:
Ah, not in anger, not in strife,
we come with laden hands ;
The crimson retinues of War
are off in other lands ;
We bring the blossoms we have nursed to
shed their honeyed breath
Where erst the reeling ranks of wrath
unbarred the gates of death ;
We lift the dear dead faces
of our heroes to the light,
We praise the pallid hands of theirs,
we clasp and hold them tight ;
We say: O brothers, rise and see
the Peace you helped to woo,
Whose snowy pinions hover o’er
the Red, the White, the Blue.
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