Monday is Memorial Day in the United States. Many Americans have the day off because Memorial Day is a federal holiday. The holiday commemorates the military personnel who died while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. The first Memorial Day was organized by a group of formerly enslaved people in Charleston, South Carolina, shortly after the Confederacy surrendered in 1865. They held a parade and a picnic at a former Confederate prison camp, where they reburied the Union soldiers who had been hastily interred there.
In 1868, General John A. Logan, commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), a veterans’ organization, proclaimed May 30 as a nationwide day of remembrance. He issued General Order No. 11 on May 5, 1868. The order urged Americans to lay flowers and flags on the graves of Union soldiers. On that day, more than 20,000 graves of Union and Confederate soldiers were decorated at Arlington National Cemetery.
Over time, Decoration Day became Memorial Day and expanded to include all U.S. military casualties from any war or conflict. In 1971, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which moved Memorial Day from May 30 to the last Monday in May, creating a three-day weekend for federal employees.
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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.