This is Memorial Day weekend here in the US. To me, it always felt a little weird saying, “Happy Memorial Day” since we are to be celebrating those that gave their lives for our country. Maybe a phrase like, “Grateful Memorial Day,” or “Have a Thankful Memorial Day” would be a better phrase.
According to Wikipedia:
Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States for remembering the people who died while serving in the country’s armed forces. The holiday, which is observed every year on the last Monday of May, originated as Decoration Day after the American Civil War in 1868, when the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Union veterans founded in Decatur, Illinois, established it as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers.
It has nothing to with Automobile sales, or shopping at the mall, or having a long weekend, or even the start of the Summer Season. This weekend marks the ‘Official’ summer season “At the Shore” which indicates traffic will be a mess heading down south in New Jersey. But Memorial Day really means none of those things.
Although it has nothing to do with WordPress or your website, I want to share a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow that you can allow to sink in as you read it. Think about the true meaning of Memorial Day.
Decoration Day
Sleep, comrades, sleep and rest
On this Field of the Grounded Arms,
Where foes no more molest,
Nor sentry’s shot alarms!Ye have slept on the ground before,
And started to your feet
At the cannon’s sudden roar,
Or the drum’s redoubling beat.But in this camp of Death
No sound your slumber breaks;
Here is no fevered breath,
No wound that bleeds and aches.All is repose and peace,
Untrampled lies the sod;
The shouts of battle cease,
It is the Truce of God!Rest, comrades, rest and sleep!
The thoughts of men shall be
As sentinels to keep
Your rest from danger free.Your silent tents of green
We deck with fragrant flowers
Yours has the suffering been,
The memory shall be ours.— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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