Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation's service.
To help re-educate and remind Americans of the true meaning of Memorial Day, the "National Moment of Remembrance" resolution was passed on Dec 2000 which asks that at 3 p.m. local time, for all Americans "To voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a Moment of remembrance and respect, pausing from whatever they are doing for a moment of silence or listening to 'Taps'.
But what may be needed to return the solemn, and even sacred, spirit back to Memorial Day is for a return to its traditional day of observance. Many feel that when Congress made the day into a three-day weekend in with the National Holiday Act of 1971, it made it all the easier for people to be distracted from the spirit and meaning of the day. As the VFW stated in its 2002 Memorial Day address: "Changing the date merely to create three-day weekends has undermined the very meaning of the day. No doubt, this has contributed greatly to the general public's nonchalant observance of Memorial Day."
http://www.usmemorialday.org/backgrnd.html
What do you think? Have we lost the true meaning Memorial Day?
4 comments:
I think we have lost the meanings of most of our holidays.
(Blogger will only allow me to comment if this is listed as "anonymous" (Clint from lyricsofloveandlore
I think many see it as a 3 day weekend.I grew up with it being a road trip with all the boys and my Dad going to decorate graves, and pay our respects to relatives nearby.I am going to a flag ceromony tommorrow , our main highway coming into town is lined with flags all the way to the veterans memorial.
IT'S MEANING IS NOT, NOR EVER WILL BE, LOST TO ME...
For me and my family Memorial Day is very important. We always celebrated it in Russia and continue doing it here in Canada. Thank you for this post.
Post a Comment