John Scarffe, Peak to Peak. Memorial Day officially began in Waterloo, New York, when the city began holding an annual community service on May 5, 1866. More than two dozen towns claim to be the birthplace of Memorial Day, but Waterloo won congressional recognition as the “Birthplace of Memorial Day.” President Johnson declared Waterloo the official birthplace in 1966, according to “In the Light Urns” publication.

On the first, official Memorial Day a large ceremony was held at Arlington National Cemetery, and flowers were placed on the headstones. Memorial Day is set aside to honor those who died in our Nation’s service and is celebrated on the last Monday in May.

The original name for the holiday was Decoration Day, according to In the Light. Initially it was a response to the Civil War, in which 620,000 soldiers died between both sides. The loss of life and its effect on communities throughout the country led to several spontaneous commemorations of the dead.

In 1864, women from Boalsburg, Pennsylvania, put flowers on the graves of their fallen soldiers from the Battle of Gettysburg, and in 1865, women decorated the graves of soldiers buried in Vicksburg, Mississippi. In April 1866, women from Columbus, Mississippi, decorated graves of both Union and Confederate soldiers. 

In Carbondale, Illinois, 219 Civil War veterans marched through town to Woodlawn Cemetery in memory of the fallen. There Union Major General John A. Logan delivered the principal address. The ceremony gave Carbondale its claim to the first organized, community-wide Memorial Day observance.

On May 5, 1868, General Logan issued an order that set aside May 30, 1868, “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.” The name Memorial Day goes back to 1882, but the name, Decoration Day, didn’t disappear until after World War II. In 1967, federal law declared “Memorial Day” the official name.

New York was the first state to designate Memorial Day a legal holiday, in 1873. Most northern states had followed suit by the 1890s. Former Confederate states were reluctant to celebrate a holiday memorializing those who, in General Logan’s words, “united to suppress the late rebellion.” 

The South finally adopted the May 30 Memorial Day after World War I, by which time its purpose had been broadened to include those who died in all the country’s wars. In 1951, the Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts of St. Louis began the placement of 150,000 flags at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery. 

This tradition still stands. A National Holiday Act was signed by Congress in 1971, ensuring a three day weekend for the Federal Holiday.

On Memorial Day weekend in 1988, 2,500 motorcyclists rode into Washington, D.C., for the first Rolling Thunder rally to draw attention to Vietnam War soldiers still missing in action or prisoners of war. By 2002, the ride had increased to 300,000 bikers, many of them veterans. 

Over time several customs and symbols became associated with the holiday. It is customary on Memorial Day to fly the flag at half-staff until noon, and then raise it to the top of the staff until sunset. In 2000, Congress established a National Moment of Remembrance, which asks Americans to pause for one minute at 3 p.m. in an act of national unity. The time was chosen because 3 p.m. “is the time when most Americans are enjoying their freedoms on the national holiday.”

(Originally published in the May 23, 2019, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)