Memorial Day is almost here, and some individuals might wonder what the events of Memorial Day history are. You may want to know how it came about, how it was made official, so on and so forth. So, in advance of packing up to camp out at the lake, go to Grandma's house or just getting away from all the noise, here's some of the dish on Memorial Day.
Article Source: A Brief Memorial Day History Lesson By Personal Money Store
Memorial Day history begins with the Civil War
It was not actually called Memorial Day at first. There are differing opinions as to when was the first observance, but what is clear is that days of remembrance were observed right away after the end of the Civil War, and also the graves of the fallen were decorated. The initial name for it was Decoration Day, which doesn’t exactly take a genius to come up with. (We give our holidays such uncolorful names in this country. Maybe some easy cash loans for an exploratory group to come up with some better ones is in order.)
Got the attention of veterans
An observance of Decoration Day on May 5, 1866, in the town of Waterloo, New York got the attention of two retired Army Generals, John Logan and John Murray. John Logan actually headed a fraternal organization for Union veterans called the Grand Army of the Republic. (The group was later absorbed into the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War.) On May 5, 1868, they announced that on May 30 they would observe a Decoration Day, and urged others to do the same. The South, true to form in opposing something that wasn’t horrible and having a mammoth amount of sour grapes, mostly opposed it.
Memorial Day gets on the books
The name Memorial Day didn't become official until 1967. To make things easier for everybody, Congress passed the Uniform Holidays Bill, which fixed Memorial Day, Veterans Day, Columbus Day, and Washington’s Birthday, later to become Presidents Day, on specified Mondays. Ever since then, veterans groups have been trying to get Congress to move it back to May 30 because Mondays are quite hard to find on calendars. Memorial Day 2010, will fall on May 31.
More information on this topic
Memorial Day
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_Day
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