Memorial Day, an Amerian national holiday that is celebrated the last Monday of the month of May. On this day we honor those who have given their lives in defense of our country. Over the years it has come to be a day that all graves are decorated and those who served in the military are marked with flags.
Sunday we visited local family graves, ones that don’t take hours to get to It was a beautiful day for a drive. There was almost no wind, which in Kansas is very rare. The sky had puffy white clouds that cleared off in the evening. The sunset was amazing.
On Monday morning, all over the country, there are ceremonies conducted at cemeteries and other locations to honor fallen veterans. I planned on going to a local observance but misunderstood what time it was. I did make it to another one just as they got started. Patriotic songs were sung, prayers were said, an uplifting message was given, and a roll call of veterans that died in the last year was read. Local Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts assisted with the ceremony, helping to raise the flag (to half-staff) and set flowers for each name on the roll-call. The VFW Auxillary (Veterans of Foreign Wars) helped with the honor guard along with local members of the military. It was incredibly moving.
Later in the afternoon, we had family and friends over for supper. It was a great end to a lovely weekend.
“Memorial Day isn’t just about honoring veterans, it’s honoring those who lost their lives. Veterans had the fortune of coming home. for us, that’s a reminder of when we come home we still have a responsibility to serve. It’s a continuation of service that honors our country and those who fell defending it.” Pete Hegseth www.brainyquote.com/quotes
What I lovely thing to do, we don’t have anything like that in the UK, we have a day in November which is the 11th and everyone stops for a minute silence, with a big parade in London for the First World War which ended on the 11th hour of the 11th day, on the 11th month. Of course over the years other wars have been added second world war, the Falklands, the gulf war, Koran war, and a few others.
Without these brave people that went to war and never came home, our countries would not be free.
Memorial Day came out of our Civil War in the 1860s. It is a day to remember our fallen soldiers, then later, celebrate all that have died with special recognition of our military fallen. We celebrate Veteran’s Day November 11, originally Armistice Day, to celebrate the end of WWI. In 1954 it was changed to honor and recognize veterans of all wars.