Memorial Day is on the last Monday in May and honors those men and
women who lost their lives serving their country. What we celebrate
as Memorial Day today, began at the end of the Civil War. Family
members of the many soldiers slain in battle would visit the grave
sites of their fallen relatives or friends and decorate the graves
with flowers.

On May 5, 1868, General John Logan proclaimed this day a holiday
through his General Order No. 11. The day was entitled Decoration Day
and was first observed on May 30, 1868. The northern states
celebrated this day every year, but the southern states celebrated a
day similar to this on a different day until sometime after World War I.

In 1882, the name Decoration day was changed to Memorial Day, and in
1971, Memorial Day was declared a national holiday to be held on the
last Monday of May every year. Over the years it has come to serve as
a day to remember all U.S. men and women killed or missing in action in all wars.


This is one of my favorite quotes pertaining to those amazing individuals who have given the ultimate sacrifice........


"It is, in a way, an odd thing to honor those who died in defense of
our country in wars far away. The imagination plays a trick. We see
these soldiers in our mind as old and wise. We see them as something
like the Founding Fathers, grave and gray-haired. But most of them
were boys when they died, they gave up two lives -- the one they were
living and the one they would have lived. When they died, they gave
up their chance to be husbands and fathers and grandfathers. They
gave up their chance to be revered old men. They gave up everything
for their county, for us. All we can do is remember."

-- Ronald Wilson Reagan
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Nicole

Thanks for this post.

And thanks so much to our veterans.