Memorial Day

What it is, and what it was...

May 24, 2025

I don’t know if it’s aging or the times we live in, but I find myself putting more and more emphasis on Memorial Day each year. Ofttimes I fear that too many Americans just view this holiday as a three-day-weekend that allows them to celebrate the unofficial start of summer with friends or family at a BBQ or picnic. But this could not be further from the truth, for Memorial Day is not a day of celebration at all. It is instead a humbling day of remembrance and immense gratitude to those who gave so much of themselves so that our Country would have the ability to live on. They died so that we can live. This holiday is meant to be somber and full of reflection. The significance of Memorial Day is so crucial to our Nation’s continued survival that I feel compelled to write.

The meaning of Memorial Day is sacred, as it is the day we have set aside to honor those Americans who have made the ultimate sacrifice and died while serving in our Country’s armed forces. The holiday originated over 150 years ago during our Civil War, when people placed flowers on the graves of those Americans who had been killed in battle. They used to refer to it as “Decoration Day” because of the decorating of the deceaseds’ graves. In 1868, the day had its first national observance for our fallen soldiers. It wasn’t until after World War I that the name was changed to Memorial Day. In 1971 Memorial Day finally became a federal holiday. Many Americans observe the holiday by visiting cemeteries where flags, flowers, and the like are placed on the graves of our veterans. There are also parades and ceremonies to honor our fallen.

Though you will likely find all kinds of flowers placed on the graves, the red poppy is often included, and some people even wear the poppies on Memorial Day as part of a tradition that started during World War I. The poppies were the flower named in what became one of the most famous war poems, “In Flanders Fields”, which was penned by Canadian soldier, John McCrae, in 1915. The poem reads:

In Flanders Fields
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

American Moina Michael was so inspired by “In Flanders Fields” that she wrote the poem “We Shall Keep the Faith” in 1918. Her work helped memorialize the red poppy flower as the symbol used when honoring the fallen. Her poem reads:

We Shall Keep the Faith
Oh! you who sleep in Flanders Fields,
Sleep sweet - to rise anew!
We caught the torch you threw
And holding high, we keep the Faith
With All who died.
We cherish, too, the poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led;
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies,
But lends a lustre to the red
Of the flower that blooms above the dead
In Flanders Fields.
And now the Torch and Poppy Red
We wear in honor of our dead.
Fear not that ye have died for naught;
We'll teach the lesson that ye wrought
In Flanders Fields.

I hope this Memorial Day you will remind others that its true meaning is gratitude and praise for our fellow Americans who gave their lives in the name of our freedom and liberty. We cannot lose sight of the deeply honest truth that, freedom is not free! To those families who have a fallen soldier in their history, whether past or present, I salute your soldier, I salute you, and may God bless you always.

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