Memorial Day, which marks the beginning of summer in the United States, is also a time to remember and mourn the fallen members of the armed services, from lawnmowers to mattresses, with discounts on everything.
According to AAA, the American Automobile Association, it is estimated that 42 million individuals from the United States will embark on journeys of 50 miles (80 kilometers) or greater during this holiday weekend. The automobile organization stated that this could potentially be a noteworthy occasion, particularly at airports.
Funcionarios federales dijeron este viernes que la cantidad de viajeros aéreos ya había alcanzado un máximo de la era de la pandemia.
Manuel Castañeda Jr., 58 years old, will experience a peaceful day in Durand, Illinois, located on the outskirts of Rockford. He tragically lost his father, a Vietnam War veteran serving as a US Marine, in a California accident during his training of fellow Marines in 1966.
“Castañeda, who also served in the Marine Corps and the Army National Guard, where he met those who died in combat, said, “Memorial Day is very personal.” “It’s not just the barbecue.” “It’s not just the sales.”
“How can I expect them to understand the depth of what I feel when they haven’t experienced anything like it?” Try not to judge others who spend their vacations differently, but the retired officer Pero.
1. The official purpose of the holiday
The holiday is observed in part by the National Moment of Remembrance, which encourages all Americans to take a break at 3 p.M. For a moment of silence. According to the Congressional Research Service, it is a day of reflection and remembrance of those who died while serving in the United States military.
2. The Origins of Vacations
From 1861 to 1865, over 600,000 military personnel lost their lives in the American Civil War, which is the origin of the holiday, including soldiers from both the Union and the Confederacy.
On May 30, 1868, the first national celebration known as Decoration Day took place, although there was little controversy surrounding it. It was a day to decorate the graves of fallen soldiers with flowers, organized by the Union veterans’ organization.
The birthplace of the holiday was proclaimed later on in Waterloo, New York, and a formal celebration began on May 5, 1866. The tradition was already widely spread locally.
From October 1864 until its first observance, the war’s end was tracked in Boalsburg, Pennsylvania. However, according to the Library of Congress, some women in Confederate states began decorating graves before the end of the war.
On May 1, 1865, in Charleston, South Carolina, approximately 10,000 people, many of whom were black, gathered at the graves of the Union dead to listen to speeches and participate in a parade. This event was documented by Professor David Blight from Yale University in his history of Pero.
3. A Sacred or Sacrilegious Festivity?
Focuses on the sacred “being” of leaving and “sacrilegious” becoming could be the festival that The New York Times wrote about in 1869 already. There are criticisms of the festival’s departure from its original meaning. It focuses more on the sacred and sacrilegious becoming festival that The New York Times wrote about in 1869 already. There are criticisms of the festival’s departure from its original meaning.
In 1871, Frederick Douglass, an abolitionist, expressed his fear that Americans were forgetting the momentum of the Civil War – specifically, the issue of slavery – in a speech he delivered at Arlington National Cemetery.
He said, “the destroyers of the nation and the nation stood between beneath this grass where the loyal soldiers rest that we must never forget”.
Sus preocupaciones estaban bien fundadas, dijo Ben Railton, profesor de estudios ingleses y estadounidenses en la Universidad Estatal de Fitchburg en Massachusetts.
Railton expressed, “The celebration in numerous societies would essentially transform into ‘Memorial Day for Caucasians’ despite roughly 180,000 African-American males serving in the Union Army.”
After the Civil War, how elected officials spend their day has become a matter of scrutiny, at least by the nation.
Matthew Dennis, an esteemed history professor at the University of Oregon, stated that “people were horrified” and it was rumored that the then-president Grover Cleveland had gone fishing in the 1880s.
4. The Evolution of Memorial Day
In 1954, Veterans Day was renamed Armistice Day and became a national holiday in 1938. November 11, 1918, marked the end of World War I, which, along with the addition of Armistice Day, somewhat diminished the significance of Memorial Day, according to Professor Emeritus Dennis.
May 30th was the original date for Memorial Day, but in 1971 it was changed to the last Monday of May. This change was made to recognize Memorial Day as a three-day weekend and a day of leisure, rather than just a solemn day of remembrance for the fallen.
“A national 3-day celebration that seems to have lost much of its original purpose,” said Time magazine in 1972, describing how the holiday had transformed.
5. ¿Por qué las ventas y los viajes?
Even in the 19th century, funeral ceremonies were followed by recreational activities such as picnics and foot races, according to Dennis.
According to the 2002 book, “A History of Memorial Day: Unity, Discord and the Pursuit of Happiness” progressed in parallel with baseball and the car, the five-day workweek, and summer holidays.
In the mid-20th century, a small number of businesses defiantly started opening during the celebration.
According to authors Richard Harmond and Thomas Curran, “the traditional barriers to doing business began to crumble” once the holiday moved to Monday.
Despite inflation, 2.7 million people will travel this weekend, in comparison to the official start of summer last year. The memories of Memorial Day and the sales are deeply rooted in the nation’s consciousness, especially these days.
In 2019, starting from the Sunday after Thanksgiving, the highest number was assessed by the Transportation Security Administration at 2.66 million individuals at airport checkpoints on Thursday, approximately 2,500 more than the previous Friday.
“Thirty names are tattooed on his arm ‘for every guy that I personally knew who died,’ said Jason Redman, a 48-year-old retired Navy special agent who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. Meanwhile, he will be thinking about the friends he has lost.”
Quiere que los estadounidenses recuerden a los caídos, pero también que se diviertan, sabiendo que se sacrificaron vidas para forjar la festividad.