{"id":3852,"date":"2020-06-04T21:19:04","date_gmt":"2020-06-04T21:19:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/?p=3852"},"modified":"2020-06-04T21:19:04","modified_gmt":"2020-06-04T21:19:04","slug":"why-do-we-commemorate-memorial-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/why-do-we-commemorate-memorial-day\/","title":{"rendered":"“Why Do We Commemorate Memorial Day?”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Memorial Day remarks by Edward Spannaus, Lovettsville Historical Society, May 25, 2020, delivered as part of the Town of Lovettsville’s virtual Memorial Day Ceremony. The video of the entire event can be viewed here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019m speaking to you from Lovettsville Union Cemetery, where 303 military veterans are buried.<\/p>\n

Memorial Day \u2013 that\u2019s the three-day holiday that marks the beginning of summer, right? \u2013 just as Labor Day marks the end of summer.<\/p>\n

Memorial Day \u2013 a good time\u00a0 (under normal circumstances) for shopping, and a picnic.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re watching this, you know better than that.\u00a0 You know the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans\u2019 Day: that Memorial Day honors those who made the ultimate sacrifice in our Nation\u2019s wars, and Veterans\u2019 Day honors all military veterans.<\/p>\n

Memorial Day was originally known as \u201cDecoration Day,\u201d and ceremonies were usually held in cemeteries such as this one,\u00a0 since its purpose was to decorate the gravesites of those who died in the Civil War.\u00a0 There are many claimants for the first to do this, but many of the contenders were towns in the South.<\/p>\n

It is worthwhile noting, in this day and age, that many of those decorating the gravesites, honored both Confederate and Union soldiers \u2013 just as we do here today.<\/p>\n

This was the case in Columbus, Mississippi, in April 1866, when local women were strewing flowers on the graves of Confederate soldiers, and seeing the graves of Union soldiers neglected, placed flowers on those graves too.<\/p>\n

The first call for an annual, nationwide observation, was issued by the Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR — the Union veterans\u2019 association) in early May, 1868.\u00a0 Gen. John Logan\u2019s proclamation set the date for May 30.<\/p>\n

On that date, in 1868, ceremonies were held in 183 cemeteries in 27 states.\u00a0 5000 people attended the commemoration at A.N.C., during which flowers were placed on both Union and Confederate graves.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0 Decoration Day tradition continued throughout the 19th<\/sup> century, and well into the 20th<\/sup> century. After the First World War, Decoration Day was expanded to honor those who died in all the Nation\u2019s wars, from the Rev War\u00a0 forward.<\/p>\n

One of the nation\u2019s largest Decoration Day Events was held right here, in Lovettsville Union Cemetery.\u00a0 We are fortunate to have one account of this which has been preserved, from 1898.\u00a0 It begins this way:<\/p>\n

\u201cDecoration Day.\u00a0 Services in memory of the dead that lie buried in the Union and New Jerusalem Church cemeteries were held at the New Jerusalem Lutheran Church \u2026 under the auspices of the Lovettsville Union Cemetery Co.\u00a0 An ideal day, a beautiful cemetery, a very large attendance, appropriate music, and a profusion of flowers, made the occasion memorable.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Those annual ceremonies continued up until at least 1950.\u00a0 Our former Mayor Elaine Walker recalls how she joined the \u201cFlower Girls\u201d dressed in white,\u00a0 strewing flowers on the graves here.<\/p>\n

At Union cemetery, we still put out flags on the graves of over 300 known military veterans every year for Memorial Day.<\/p>\n

Last year, the practice of strewing flowers on the graves of military veterans was revived, when the Viking Division of the Navy Sea Cadets Corps, having done this at Arlington National Cemetery, came hereto Union cemetery, after the ceremonies at the Town Square, and lay flowers on military graves here. They were accompanied on bagpipes by Loudoun County Sheriff\u2019s Deputy Sean McCarten.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, this year, the Sea Cadets are under a Stand-down Order due to the Coronavirus pandemic, but we do anticipate them being back here next year.<\/p>\n

We urge you to visit our local cemeteries, especially this week when all veterans\u2019 graves are marked with flags.<\/p>\n

Right next to us here, behind the church, is the old Lutheran Cemetery, a real hidden treasure in our community. Buried there, are about a dozen Revolutionary War soldiers and patriots. Those whose grave sites are still visible, are marked with flags year \u2018round.<\/p>\n

There are also at least five War of 1812 veterans, and four Civil War veterans whose grave sites are identified.<\/p>\n

At the old Reformed Cemetery (that’s the St. James cemetery on Lovettsville Road), there are nine Civil War veterans, and two World War II veterans, whose graves are also marked for Memorial Day.<\/p>\n

Military veterans are also buried at the \u201cAfrican Chapel\u201d (the AME Church) across from the Town Square, and at Mount Olivet United Methodist Church, on Mountain Road.<\/p>\n

Since 1971, Memorial Day has been commemorated on a three-day weekend, the last weekend in May, as a result of legislation passed by Congress in 1968 \u2013 which was largely for business and commercial reasons.<\/p>\n

A number of patriotic organizations, including the VFW, the American Legion, and the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, have urged restoring the date to the fixed date of May 30 \u2013 just as Veterans\u2019 Day was restored back to November 11.<\/p>\n

The late Senator Daniel Inouye, a World War II veteran, used to introduce legislation every year, to restore Memorial Day to its traditional date.<\/p>\n

In 1999, he stated, when introducing of his bill, that by changing the date, \u201cwe have lost sight of the significance of this day to our Nation. Instead of using Memorial Day as a time to honor and reflect on the sacrifices made by Americans in combat, many Americans used the day as a celebration of the beginning of summer\u2026.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>His legislation , Senator Inouye stated, \u201cwould help restore the recognition our veterans deserve for the sacrifices they have made on behalf of our Nation.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>In that spirit, let us commemorate this day \u2013 no matter what the date \u2013 and let us never forget those who sacrificed so much for our country.<\/p>\n

Thank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Memorial Day remarks by Edward Spannaus, Lovettsville Historical Society, May 25, 2020, delivered as part of the Town of Lovettsville’s virtual Memorial Day Ceremony. The video of the entire event…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3855,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3852"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3859,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3852\/revisions\/3859"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}