By Mary Welander
State Rep., D-114
Mary Welander
We observed Memorial Day on Monday, May 27 this year and commemorate it in Orange on Sunday, May 26 with the annual Memorial Day ceremony at 10:30 a.m. at High Plains Community Center, followed by the parade at 11:30 a.m.
Our town’s tradition allows for both the celebratory and respectful aspects of this day, which is so important. In order to fully understand and appreciate the enormity of the sacrifice that the fallen men and women have made for our country, you must also have moments of great joy and celebration.
If you weren’t able to attend the ceremony before the parade, perhaps during the parade you found a moment to reflect on the history of Memorial Day, which in itself has a sense of bittersweet celebration. According to the National Cemetery Administration’s website, “In the waning years of the Civil War (1861–1865) and immediately afterward, communities in the North and South, Black and White, decorated soldiers’ graves with floral honors on springtime ‘decoration days.’ The practice of strewing flowers on graves has been documented from Classical Roman times to western Europe in the nineteenth century.”
There are a number of different accounts on who may have held the first Decoration Day (and some arguments about who even had the idea first), but behind all of them was the desire to honor those who had died during the battles of the Civil War. Many communities held their own Decoration Days independently until 1868, when Gen. John Logan declared that May 30 would be known as Decoration Day to lay flowers on the graves of fallen soldiers to honor their passing (most states now commemorate it on the final Monday in May).
While the South didn’t formally recognize the day until after World War I, on the first Decoration Day 5,000 people laid flowers on the graves of over 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington Cemetery.
On that day, General James Garfield said the following in an historic speech:
“We do not know one promise these men made, one pledge they gave, one word they spoke; but we do know they summed up and perfected, by one supreme act, the highest virtues of men and citizens. For love of country they accepted death, and thus resolved all doubts, and made immortal their patriotism and their virtue.”
These words still hold true for the servicemen and servicewomen who we have lost since that day. While we watch our talented school bands and cheer on our first responders and later perhaps share a barbeque with friends and family, I hope we all find time to remember the sacrifices so many have made for the success of our country. Imperfect as it is, I am so grateful for those who have been willing to give all to defend it.