Remembering The Origins of Memorial Day In America

It was President Lyndon B. Johnson, in the year 1968, who worked with Congress to designate the last Monday in May as Memorial Day. A day which, according to the 33rd President of the United States, Harry S. Truman, should be set aside to honor the debt to the heroic men and valiant women in the service of our country can never be repaid. They have earned our undying gratitude.

While Memorial Day didn't officially become a holiday until 1968, when the US Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, people all over the nation have taken time to honor and commemorate members of our armed forces who paid the ultimate sacrifice and gave their lives towards the efforts of American freedom for many years. Have you ever asked, where and how did Memorial Day start?

According to the National Cemetery Administration, Memorial Day traces its roots back to the end of the US Civil War.

Initially called Decoration Day, it was more formally referred to as the Memorial Day Orders by John A. Logan, Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic in his General Orders No. 11 in 1868.

While the beginnings of the official governmental observance began as a result of the GAR issued by General Logan, the act of honoring the fallen was started a few years earlier by a group of Black freedmen who properly buried and honored 257 Union soldiers in Charleston, South Carolina, on May 1, 1865.

While several communities around America held a tradition to honor the soldiers who gave their lives for the United States, it was the Empire State that made Memorial Day an official holiday in 1873, the first state in the nation to do so, and nearly 100 years before the Federal Government.

While you're enjoying some extra time off with your family and friends, it's important to remember why we have this time available and who gave everything they had to make it happen.