The History of Memorial Day

Memorial Day is next Monday. While many people spend the day visiting cemeteries, having lunch with the family, and thinking about the loved ones we’ve lost, most people don’t actually know how Memorial Day began.

The holiday has its roots back in 1865, hen decorating solders’ graves became popular in the north U.S. The first observance was in May of 1866 in Waterloo, New York. This town-wide event became an annual observance. General John Murray, a Waterloo resident, and General John Logan helped promote the practice. Logan, the head of a group for Northern Civil War veterans, named May 30 as Decoration Day in 1868. May 30 was chosen because it was not the anniversary of any battle and so any soldier and any conflict could be remembered.

The day of remembrance spread throughout the north U.S. within a few years. Michigan became the first state to make Decoration Day an official holiday in 1871, and by 1890, every northern state had done the same. Many different groups began sponsoring ceremonies and other events on Decoration Day.

In the South, the day actually started as the day freed slaves celebrated their freedom. In 1865, the first large group of freedmen gathered at the Washington Race Course to celebrate. The course had temporarily served as a prison camp for Union soldiers captured by the Confederacy, and it was home to a mass grave for those who died in the camp. The freedmen reburied each of the soldiers in individual graves and built a fence around it, declaring it a Union graveyard. A number of sermons and ceremonies were held there on May 1, 1865.

The Southern states adopted Decoration Day, but each state held their own anywhere from late April to mid-June. June 3, the birthday of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, was named a state holiday in 1916 in ten states, and it served as an equivalent to Decoration Day for residents. These celebrations, unlike some of the North’s, were serious, simple events. One state, Mississippi, celebrated both Union and Confederate soldiers in 1866, making its Decoration Day one of the earliest events to honor all fallen soldiers.

In 1882, the name Memorial Day was used for the first time. However, it didn’t become commonly used until after World War II. The name was chosen as the name of the official federal holiday in 1967. In 1968, the Uniform Holidays Bill merged three different holidays (Memorial Day, Veterans Day, and Washington’s Birthday) into Memorial Day and set its current date, the last Monday of May. This official day took effect in 1971.

Since then, all 50 states have followed the Federal Memorial Day weekend. However, several senators and representatives have attempted to have the date changed back to May 30. The bills have received some attention but have always failed.