For years now, I’ve questioned the rationale behind changing the dates of holidays to extend two-day weekends into three-day holiday getaways. Now I know some might feel offended by this, because so many look forward to the “three-day weekend.”
I guess the point I’m trying to make deals with the need to understand and respect the reason behind the holiday.
We might also think about whether we are “cheapening” the purpose of the holiday by commercializing it. I’m referring here to an especially important holiday, Memorial Day, one which should have a uniquely important significance.
Take a survey of those around you and ask what the Memorial Day Holiday stands for, and you’ll be amazed at how many cannot come up with the correct answer – especially school aged children.
When the holiday began in our nation, it first involved a spontaneous decorating of Confederate soldiers’ graves. This was done as a sign of respect for their sacrifices. It was held in Columbus, Mississippi, on April 25, 1866, as a remembrance of those Confederate soldiers who fell during the battle of Shiloh.
Two years later, on May 30, 1868, the head of an organization of Union veterans, the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. Major General John A. Logan declared that Decoration Day should be held on May 30 of each year, as it would coincide with flowers being in full bloom by then.
The observance that year was held in Arlington National Cemetery and the graves of both Union and Confederate soldiers were decorated while coinciding with the singing of hymns and the reciting of prayers.
Eventually, after World War I, the day was expanded to honor all those soldiers who would die in battle.
Since then, there have been various changes to the holiday, but for some, the commercialization of it has left a bad taste in their months. Ask yourself if Memorial Day should be about “special pricing” for goods such as mattresses, car tires, automobiles or big-screen TVs? Retailers can offer those sales incentives any time of the year, but for some reason we need to provide a “hook” to drag potential customers through the door. Aren’t the sacrifices of those men and women whose graves we decorate worth more than a discount at a retail outlet?
Have we lost sight of what the cost of freedom really is? How can we expect the next generation to be aware of the significance of those sacrifices if they only can relate to it as a “sale day”?
The same also should apply to the Fourth of July, and the understanding of what really happened when 56 men placed their signatures on that piece of parchment that, in effect, signed their death warrants. In fact, five of those signers were captured, tortured and killed. Twelve had their homes plundered and burned to the ground. Another nine died of their wounds while fighting for our independence and freedom.
Today, our nation and our future generations face a set of challenges like no others before them have faced. Everywhere I look, it seems the strength and the willingness to sacrifice for the greater good -which helped us persevere though the last 100 years – consistently have been coming under attack.
We are a wonderful nation that, due to its commitment to the greater good of mankind, has helped to provide a better world for us all. We’ve stood up to tyranny and despotism. When we’ve stepped onto foreign soil, it was not to acquire it, but to restore it to the free men and women who lived there and were threatened with losing it.
The only evidence of our presence there lies in the rows of brilliant white crosses adorning the bluffs above beaches which once were drenched with the blood of our service men and women.
Memorial Day should always be a day of reverence and a solemn day of respect for those who gave their all, no matter where the call might have taken them, or our nation’s cost in treasure and blood.
God Bless those that heard that call and gave the ultimate sacrifice.
The Link Lonk
May 27, 2021 at 11:10AM
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Reverence For the Holiday - coastalbreezenews.com
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