A week from today, (Monday, May 31) Americans will celebrate Memorial Day. It will mark the unofficial beginning of summer and provide an excuse for feasting but its founding purpose was a day of solemn remembrance. Memorial Day or “Decoration Day” dates back to just after the civil war. Communities in both the North and the South gathered to remember their honored dead. Graves were covered with blankets of flowers, heroism was celebrated and prayers were offered. It is unclear where exactly this tradition began but some records indicate that one of the earliest commemorations was organized by a group of formerly enslaved people in Charleston, South Carolina less than a month after the Confederacy surrendered in 1865. By the late 1860s ceremonies were held in multiple locations throughout the country. On May 5, 1868, General John A. Logan called for a national day of remembrance later that month. The date of May 30, 1868 was chosen because it wasn’t the anniversary of any particular battle. The date was known as “Decoration Day.” The date remained, May 30, until 1968 when Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act in order to create a three-day weekend for federal employees. The change went into effect in 1971. The same law declared Memorial Day a federal holiday.
While established to remember members of the military who died in the line of duty, the holiday expanded as families began to decorate the graves of relatives. I don’t know how you commemorate the day but I remember, as a child, going with my parents to Pryor, Porter and Haskell to place flowers on graves. I remember walking through fields, climbing over barbed wire to get to a small, over-grown patch with a few headstones and then just some bricks or a rock. My father would say, “That’s uncle so and so over there. This is so and so who is a distant relative of your papa.” Those memories are faded now. Not so clear and a bit hazy. I couldn’t find that little patch of ground if my life depended on in. More’s the pity. There is something valuable lost when we forget the past. Our lives are diminished when narrowed to me and my immediate context. Not just names and dates but the rich, full history of lives lived, sacrifices made, the joys and heartaches of heritage passed down. It’s good to remember and give thanks. It is good to reflect and learn.
There’s also something priceless lost when we, as a nation/people, forget the past. There is value in remembering those who paid the ultimate price for our freedom and way of life. There is something important when we see that flower-blanketed grave, see that flag and hear taps. It’s good to feel that lump in your throat and tears fill your eye. We are reminded it’s not all about us. We are part of something much larger, more significant and more precious than our individual lives. We are part of a larger story, a history, a heritage. Not a pristine heritage but a real heritage with both good and bad. Moments of honor and dishonor. Times when we lived up to our ideals and times when we fell miserably short.
As Memorial Day approaches may we, as Americans, stop, remember and give thanks. May we commit ourselves to live up to our founding principles that all men are created equally and endowed by their Creator with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. May we also recognize and confess we, as a nation, have not always “lived” that truth out. May we, as the people of God, remember that all men are created in the image and likeness of God and are thus worthy of dignity and respect. May we also recognize that we have failed to live up to our professed faith and determine, by the grace of God, to strive to live righteously and love our neighbor as we love ourselves.
Have a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend and take some time to stop, remember and give thanks.
I’ll see you Sunday,
Rod