Sunday, May 29, 2011

SUNDAY TRIVIA - Inspired by Memorial Day

Did you know...


Memorial Day was first called “Decoration Day” because of the practice of decorating soldier’s graves with flowers.

The cultural beginning of summer is associated with Memorial Day, although the official solstice is actually in June. Many people use the weekend to plant flowers or to take a vacation. This cultural summer season traditionally lasts until Labor Day which is the first Monday of September.

Memorial Day is a day of remembrance of those who have died serving our country.

The Indianapolis 500 has been held on Memorial Day weekend since 1911

It is a tradition for the President to place the official Presidential wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington Cemetery located in Arlington County, Virginia.

Memorial day was first celebrated on May 30, 1868. It was observed by placing flowers on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers during the first national celebration.

New York was the first state to recognize Memorial Day. In Waterloo, New York on May 5, 1866, the first Memorial Day celebration was led by local druggist, Henry C. Welles and Civil War hero General John B. Murray. On March 7, 1966, the Governor of New York signed a proclamation recognizing Waterloo as the birthplace of the holiday as did congress on May 17, 1966. On May 26, 1966, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Presidential Proclamation that recognized Waterloo as the birthplace of the government holiday.

Americans consume an estimated seven billion hot dogs between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

Decoration Day would eventually become known as Memorial Day. The name was officially changed to Memorial Day and soldiers who had died in wars other than the Civil War were included as well. In 1971, Richard Nixon declared it a federal holiday would be celebrated on the last Monday in May.

In 1915, inspired by the poem “In Flanders Fields,” Moina Michael replied with her own poem.
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.
She then came up with an idea of wearing red poppies on Memorial day in honor of those who died serving the nation during war. She was the first to wear one, and sold poppies to her friends and co-workers with the money going to benefit servicemen in need.

In the year 2000 the National Moment of Remembrance Resolution passed. At 3pm on Memorial Day all Americans are asked to voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a moment of remembrance & respect by pausing from whatever they are doing for a moment of silence or listening to taps.

Armistice means truce. World War I was also known as “the War to end all wars,” so November 11 might still be called Armistice Day if war had not broken out in Europe only a few years later, according to US Department of Veteran's Affairs. On June 1, 1954, Armistice Day was changed to Veteran’s Day to honor all who had fought in American wars.

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