Today is Memorial Day, the unofficial start of the summer season. Many people think of the last Monday in May as a time to break out the barbecue and grill some burgers and dogs. Others head to vacation homes for the long weekend. But, Memorial Day is not on the calendar just so we know that it is ok to wear white shoes.

Originally called Decoration Day, the holiday was established to honor those who lost their lives in the Civil War. In 1868, General John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic declared that May 30 would be "designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion..." Some believe that Logan chose May 30 because flowers would be in bloom everywhere in the country. He intended to establish an annual celebration, and through the years, the remembrance of Civil War casualties spread. After World War I, many used the holiday to remember the fallen soldiers in all America's wars. Not until 1971 did Congress declare Memorial Day an official holiday, which would be celebrated on the last Monday of May.

Although Logan's General Order No. 11 brought national attention to Decoration Day, people in both the North and the South had been tending to Civil War graves since the end of the war. About 25 places claim to have originated the holiday. A popular story comes from Columbus, MS. On April 25, 1866, a group of women decorated the graves of Confederate soldiers who had died at Shiloh. Upset by the sight of neglected graves of Union soldiers, they decorated those graves as well. Columbus, however, is not recognized as the birthplace of Memorial Day. In 1966, one hundred years after the first isolated celebrations, the federal government declared Waterloo, NY, the official birthplace of Memorial Day because the town not only observed the day on May 5, 1866, but also established it as an annual community event.

The library does not own many books about Memorial Day, although we do have a few in the children's room. If you want to read more about the people for whom Memorial Day is celebrated, however, we have quite a collection. Nashua Public Library has hundreds of books about wars in which Americans have participated, such as the American Revolution, Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, Persian Gulf War in 1991, and the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Most of these books are in the 900s, so if you just want to browse the shelves, head over to that section.

Sources:

"History of Memorial Day." United States Department of Veterans Affairs. http://www1.va.gov/opa/speceven/memday/history.asp#hist (accessed May 25, 2007).

"Memorial Day." History.com. http://www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=Minisite_Generic&content_type_id=758&display_order=1&mini_id=1079 (accessed May 25, 2007).