By Michael Bullington–
The traditional annual observance of Memorial Day will again take place at Sylvan Cemetery at 7401 Auburn Blvd. on Monday, May 31, at 11 a.m. The ceremony will be preceded by a procession through the cemetery, so it is advisable to arrive early to be able to observe or participate in the festivities.
Now, if you were to be asked to explain the meaning of Memorial Day, how would you respond? And correspondingly, the meaning of Veterans Day?
I daresay that not many except those who served or lost a loved one could answer either question, nor grasp the full significance of the occasion. Hence, this column.
Memorial Day represents those that gave their lives in defense of this country throughout our nation’s history. It is a subset of all those who served, which are commemorated on Veterans Day, which is always observed on the 11th of November. More on that in a moment.
The beginnings of Memorial Day observances began during the Civil War. As such observances for Union dead occurred throughout the country, a federal day of commemoration on May 30 was created in 1868, three years after the end of the war.
By 1890, the then-called “Decoration Day” was recognized as an official holiday in all Northern states. In the Confederate tradition of state sovereignty, a day of remembrance was celebrated by each Southern state, according to the state’s preference.
After World War I, the entire nation celebrated a day of memorial for the fallen in all of our nation’s conflicts. The day was codified into law in 1968 with the passage of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which was designed to create a three-day weekend for federal employees. The first official celebration of Memorial Day as the last Monday in May began in 1971.
Memorial Day is observed by visits to local cemeteries, parades and the customary barbecue, also marking the unofficial beginning of summer. Yet another tradition that marks the occasion is the wearing of a red poppy.
The poppy tradition was inspired by the poem “In Flanders Fields,” written in 1915 by Canadian surgeon John McCrae, after the Second Battle of Ypres in Belgium (Flanders), in which the Germans used chlorine gas for the first time.
The Allies suffered 87,000 casualties, including the death of Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, a friend of McCrae’s. McCrae was struck by the emergence of the bright red flower growing amidst the devastated landscape left by the battle and penned the famous poem, which follows:
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
Whereas the red poppy is worn throughout the US on Memorial Day, it is worn on “Remembrance” or “Armistice” Day throughout the United Kingdom and its dominions (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Newfoundland) which rallied to the common defense of the British crown in the First World War.
Finally, an excerpt from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, his tribute to those lives sacrificed in the eponymous battle of the Civil War:
“[W]e can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
“It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Michael Bullington has been a resident of Citrus Heights for over 30 years and submits guest columns on various historic dates throughout the year. The Sentinel welcomes guest opinion columns from Citrus Heights residents. To submit an article for publication, click here.
