10 Memorial Day Remembrances by Maggie Lynch

 

FLAGS FOR MEMORIAL DAY

I’ve been chosen to end this month of celebrating the wonderful 10 years of the Romancing the Genres blog. I have not been a constant member of the blog for those ten years, though I have certainly read it for all that time. It is a great accomplishment to have kept it going and to have more than a thousand posts commemorating authors, books, writing, and how all of it is important to our lives.

Because today is Memorial Day in the U.S., I’m sharing ten ways to engage in Memorial Day observances which is to remember those who have died while serving our country.  As I’ve shared before, our eldest son is a veteran of the Iraq war. Though he was able to come home without physical scars, he did have people in his unit who died and a number who lost a leg or arm. Facing that reality is something every soldier, and families of soldiers, often need to come to terms with. For many young men, it is the first time they’ve had a friend their own age die.

When I was our son’s age when he was in Iraq, it was the Vietnam War that took the lives of some of my friends and left scars for so many others. Before that, my parent’s generation remember the Korean War and World War II. Memorial Day honors all those who died while serving in the military—even if not in war time.

MEMORIAL DAY BARBECUE

When and How Did Memorial Day Start?
Originally known as Decoration Day, this day of remembrance originated in the years following the end of the Civil War in 1865. It has been a holiday, known either as Memorial Day or Decoration Day since then. Even before the war ended, towns and cities had begun holding springtime tributes to their fallen soldiers. They would decorate their graves with flowers and recite prayers.

There is debate about where the first Memorial Day was held. Many cities have claimed they were the first, and in 1966 the federal government declared Waterloo, NY was the first celebration which was held in 1866. However, there are records and evidence to show a commemoration was organized by a group of freed slaves in Charleston, South Carolina less than a month after the Confederacy surrendered in 1865. They held the service at the race track where many union soldiers (black and white) were killed.

In 1971, Memorial Day was officially designated as the last Monday in May under the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. The purpose was to align the timing of ten federal holidays across the United States with designated time off. Though enforced only for federal employees, many states have adopted those holidays as official state observances as well. There are, of course, certain states who choose to have remembrance of fallen soldiers on different dates and for different reasons. Some of those are in addition to the federal holiday and others do not celebrate the date of the federal holiday at all, choosing to use their own memorial designation.

Today, most American’s first thought of Memorial Day is that it is a fun-packed three-day weekend that unofficially marks the beginning of summer. People have backyard cookouts, go camping or fishing, or simply get out into nature. I’ve done that as well when I was younger. But over the past three decades I’ve always taken time to remember veterans and to do something to honor their sacrifice. I hope one of the ten ways listed below may give you an extra thought of how you might celebrate this time of remembrance.

Ten Ways to Remember Memorial Day

1. Did you know that each year on Memorial Day a national moment of remembrance takes place at 3:00 p.m. local time? In 2000 Congress established a national moment of remembrance to take place at 3:00pm your local time as a show of unity in recognition of the sacrifices of our veterans. Check to see if there is a community remembrance in your town at that time. If not, consider setting an alarm and taking just one minute to stop at 3pm and give thanks to all veterans who have served our country. Then take another minute to give a blessing for all those who died.
   
   
   
   
   
2. Wear a red poppy (real or paper cutout) on your collar or shirt. During World War I, people started wearing a red poppy in remembrance of those fallen in the war. A poem often recited on Memorial Day is “In Flanders Fields,” written by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, a Canadian who served as a brigade surgeon for an Allied artillery unit and saw the carnage of that war first hand. Perhaps you can read the poem to yourself or with others on Memorial Day. Here is a post about how to make your own red poppy pin from tissue paper.
   
   
3. Place a small flag, flowers, or some other momento at graves of fallen soldiers. There are a number of community opportunities to help decorate graves. We often see the Boy Scouts doing it, but in many towns across the country, they look for volunteers to help with this. There are also veteran-aligned non-profit organizations that raise money to purchase flowers and do this work. Check your local community as well as national efforts.
   
   
4. Lend a Helping Hand. Memorial Day is about honoring fallen service members, but that doesn't mean that we can't use the holiday to show both veterans and enlisted men and women how much they mean to us. Visit a local veterans' hospital or a nearby VFW post. A simple gift of cookies, cards, poems or flowers might do more to lift the spirits of an aging veteran than you could possibly imagine. If you're already planning to have a socially distanced barbecue this year, try reaching out to the family of someone currently serving in the military in another state or country. Invite them over to share a Memorial Day to thank and recognize them for their own sacrifice of being separated from their loved one serving far away from home.
   
   
   
   
   
5. If you live nearby, visit the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Cemetery near Washington D.C. or watch the Memorial Day ceremony on television when the President lays a wreath at the tomb. "Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God" is the inscription on the Tomb of the Unknowns, established at Arlington National Cemetery to inter the remains of the first Unknown Soldier, a World War I fighter. Since then, unknown soldiers from World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War have been subsequently interred in the tomb on Memorial Day.
   
   

   

   Native American Veteran's Memorial
   National Mall

6. Visit a monument to veterans. Every state has them, and many towns and cities have a place for those who served from their city. Take time to learn about at least one of the people there. You can do that sometimes simply with a Google search. Perhaps look at newspaper archives for your city in the year that person died. Or look up the conflict in which that person served.
   
   
7. Attend a Memorial Day parade. Cities and towns across the United States host Memorial Day parades each year. It usually includes bands and floats, and always military personnel and members of veterans’ organizations. 
   
   
8. Ride Your Motorcycle for 22 Miles in Honor of soldiers missing in action and prisoners of war. Beginning in 1988 motorcyclists have ridden into Washington D.C. to call attention to Vietnam veterans still missing in action or prisoners of war. They called it Rolling Thunder. Since then, those rallies have swelled from 2,500 bikers in 1988 to as many as 300,000 bikers. Though 2019 was the last year of that specifically named ride, AMVETS took over the organizing in 2020 and changed its focus and name to Rolling to Remember and added the ride through local communities option. Traveling 22 miles is significant, because in addition to raising awareness for soldiers missing in action and prisoners of war, AMVETS wants to bring attention to the average 22 veterans who die by suicide every day.
   
   
9. Watch the National Memorial Day Concert. Every year, PBS airs the Memorial Day Concert from Washington D.C. on the Sunday prior at 8pm Eastern Time. It includes all-star performances and tributes not only from D.C. but from around the country honoring fallen soldiers.
   
   
10. Say a Prayer, Ask for a Blessing, Lite a Candle for a Fallen Soldier. Whatever your personal spiritual or moral practice, find a way to spend some time thinking of those who have given their life in service to our country, including their families and friends who they touched during their life.

 Rituals are helpful in recognizing major events and in providing a context for understanding them and their impact in our lives. I hope this article may have provided you with one or more new ways to consider celebrating and remembering Memorial Day both now and in the future.

Bio: 
Maggie Lynch is the author of 26+ published books, as well as numerous short stories and non-fiction articles.  Her fiction tells stories of men and women making heroic choices one messy moment at a time. She is the founder of Windtree Press. She blogs regularly about author opportunities and challenges at POV Author Services. When talking about her own writing processes, reading, and love of books you can find her blogging on her Maggie Lynch website.