Happy Memorial Day!
Memorial Day was originally called Decoration Day and is a day for us to remember the men and women who have died in service to the USA. There are many cities across the United States that claim to be the birth place of Memorial Day, but in 1966 Waterloo, New York was officially declared the birthplace of the holiday.
Memorial Day originally came from the Civil War as a way to honor the dead and was proclaimed a holiday on May 5, 1868. General John Logan named it a holiday by saying “The 30th of May, 1868, is designated 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, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land.” The date was chosen because it wasn’t the anniversary of any Civil War battles.
New York was the first state to recognize the holiday in 1873, and by 1890 all northern states recognized the holiday. Southern states began officially acknowledging the holiday after World War I. In 1971, Congress passed the National Holiday Act making Memorial Day a Federal holiday.
In 1915, Moina Michael penned a poem that inspired her to wear red poppies on Memorial Day in honor of those who died serving our country during war:
We cherish too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led,
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies.
Moina was the first to wear the red poppies and she began selling them to her friends and co-workers and donated the money to servicemen in need. In 1922, the VFW became the first veterans organization to begin selling the poppies. Later, the Buddy Poppy program began selling artificial poppies made by disabled war veterans. In 1948, the USPS honored Moina Michel by issuing a red 3 cent stamp with her face on it.
In December 2000, the National Moment of Remembrance resolution was passed. This resolution asks that at 3p.m. local time all Americans pause for a moment of silence out of remembrance and respect for those who have died serving our country.
All of us at Masterflo Plumbing wish you a very happy, safe, and relaxing Memorial Day weekend!
