Each year citizens gather to honor and remember those who have fallen in service of our country. It is customary to decorate the graves of those soldiers with beautiful spring flowers. It is a small gesture for those who have given their all for our freedom, but a great way to honor such brave heroes.

Memorial Day History: In 1966 Lyndon Johnson declared Waterloo,New York as the birthplace of the holiday. However many other cities and towns claim to be the place where the holiday originated. Ladies in the South began decorating the graves of Civil War Soldiers long before the war was over. It is believed that Memorial Day was really started all over with many towns holding their own ceremonies to honor their dead.

The first Memorial Day was actually called Decoration Day and was observed May 30, 1868 at Arlington National Cemetery. General John Logan had officially proclaimed the holiday earlier that month. He designated the day as one to decorate the graves of soldiers with flowers. It is believed he chose May 30 because flowers would be in bloom across the nation at that time. Now we celebrate the holiday on the last Monday in May so that all will have a Memorial Day weekend to celebrate and remember fallen soldiers.

At first Memorial Day was only celebrated on May 30 in the North and Southerners celebrated on different days, refusing to share the holiday. But that all changed after World War I, when it became more about honoring soldiers from both wars. Today soldiers from all wars are honored and remembered on this special day.

The idea of wearing red poppies for veterans came from a poem. Moina Michael wrote, in response to "In Flanders Field," a poem of her own:


She then came up with the idea of wearing red poppies as a sign of remembrance. When visiting Frenchwoman Madam Guerin saw this she decided to sell poppies to raise money for war-orphaned children and widowed women and that is why we wear poppies on Memorial Day.