What Does Memorial Day Signify? All About the Military Holiday
The annual federal holiday is intended to serve as a day of remembrance for those who died while serving in the U.S. military
It's generally advised not to wish people a "Happy" Memorial DayMemorial Day 2025, which takes place on the last Monday in May every year, falls on May 26, 2025.
Over the years, Memorial Day has come to symbolize the first weekend of summer, but its meaning far exceeds the summer vibe. Memorial Day is an annual federal United States holiday that is dedicated to mourning and honoring the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military.
The holiday, which was established in 1868, is intended for families, friends and others to pay tribute to fallen service members. Oftentimes, volunteers place American flags in cemeteries to honor their lives. There are over 150 national cemeteries —including Arlington National Cemetery and Gettysburg National Cemetery — across the country that will sport thousands of American flags every Memorial Day.
In addition to Memorial Day, there is also Armed Forces Day, celebrating current military members on the third Saturday in May, and Veterans Day, honoring all veterans on Nov. 11 every year.
Unlike Armed Forces Day and Veterans Day, it's generally discouraged to wish people a "Happy" Memorial Day, because it is a day of remembrance.
Here's everything to know about Memorial Day.
Memorial Day descends from the Southern tradition of "Decoration Day," when families traveled to the cemeteries where their ancestors were interred to place flowers on their graves, per Decoration Day in the Mountains. Often, large groups of extended families made the trip, religious ceremonies took place and food was served.
Decoration Day used to reflect the cycles of farm life, taking place in late summer when farm work was lightest or in autumn after the seasonal harvest. (Some areas would also observe it on Sundays to coincide with church services.)
According to a website dedicated to the holiday, Memorial Day — as we know it — was established on May 5, 1868, when Grand Army of the Republic (a Civil War veteran organization) General John A. Logan, the GAR's first commander-in-chief, declared May 30 to be Memorial Day and called on the GAR's membership to make it an annual occurrence.
Some hold that the day was observed because it was the anniversary of a specific battle. In 2010, President Barack Obama's Memorial Day speech (via Associated Press) referenced the date being chosen because it was when flowers were optimally in bloom for decorating graves.
Memorial Day as a national holiday did not become common until after World War II and wasn't even designated as the holiday's official name until 1967. The following year, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which moved Memorial Day from its fixed date (along with three other holidays) to the last Monday in May.
The law went into action on the federal level in 1971; within a few years, all 50 states adopted the change.
Memorial Day is not — as Veterans Day is — a blanket remembrance of those who have served in the nation's armed forces, according to VA's 2023 Veterans Day Teacher Guide. It is specifically designated to honor those who have died while serving, and because of its gradual erosion into a "start of summer" celebration, several organizations and individuals advocate for the return of the holiday to May 30, including both the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War.
The late former Hawaii Senator Daniel Inouye, a World War II veteran, introduced a Congressional measure to return Memorial Day to May 30 in 1987 and continued to do so every year until his death in 2012.
In 1999, he wrote, "Mr. President, in our effort to accommodate many Americans by making the last Monday in May Memorial Day, we have lost sight of the significance of this day to our nation. Instead of using Memorial Day as a time to honor and reflect on the sacrifices made by Americans in combat, many Americans use the day as a celebration of the beginning of summer."
Writing on the now-defunct Listserv in 2013, U.S. Marine Tony Bundschuh elaborated on the idea: "There is a difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day. Veterans Day is the one where we give thanks to all that [sic] have served, but Memorial Day is supposed to be a somber day set aside for remembrance of those that [sic] have died serving their country. It is not a happy day."
In December 2000, a resolution for a National Moment of Remembrance was passed, which calls for all Americans to "voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a Moment of remembrance and respect" at 3 p.m. local time.
Alternatively, people can also donate money to one of the many organizations that support families of combat-wounded or killed veterans or veterans themselves, like Hope for the Warriors, the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society or Homes for Our Troops.
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San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
From Benjamin Franklin to Pony Express to anthrax: How the US Postal Service shaped a nation
The one government agency that still reaches nearly every American daily — undeterred by rain, sleet, snow or even gloom of night — turns 250 on Saturday. Established in 1775, when the Second Continental Congress appointed Benjamin Franklin as postmaster general, the postal service predates the United States. It was launched nearly a year before the colonies declared their break from British rule. 'The country may not even have come into existence but for the Postal Service,' said Stephen Allen Kochersperger, the postal service historian and a former local postmaster. While it now grapples with concerns over its financial viability in the modern era, the agency has had a long and colorful history that helped shape the nation. It has grown from serving the 13 colonies to delivering more mail than any other postal system in the world, reaching nearly 169 million addresses and employing more than 635,000 people. A new postal service In those early days, creating an American postal system was a key priority for the nation's founders, who needed to communicate with the Continental Army and the colonies. When the Continental Congress met in 1775, it appointed Franklin as the first postmaster because he had served in the British postal service for North America. The early postal system also became crucial to unifying the diverse, fragmented colonies into a nation by spreading ideas of liberty and independence through letters, newspapers and pamphlets. 'People were reading, getting ideas of what it would be like to be an independent country,' Kochersperger said. Westward expansion When the U.S. Constitution was ratified, Congress was granted power to establish post offices and mail routes that were first used by mail carriers on horseback and later upgraded for stagecoaches. Some evolved into highways still used today. Initially running north–south along the East Coast, post roads later extended westward. Historians have said this aided settler expansion into Native lands and was intertwined with the displacement of tribes. As western migration accelerated, mail was sent by ship from New York to Central America and on to California. Delivery typically took two to three months. The Pony Express, operated by private carriers, was started to speed things up. A relay system of riders on horseback carried mail from California to Missouri, the furthest westward railroad stop. The 1,800-mile (2,900-kilometer) journey took 10 days. While legendary, it only lasted about 18 months, until Oct. 26, 1861. The service was scuttled by the Civil War and made obsolete with the advent of the telegraph, said Daniel Piazza, chief curator of philately at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum. Later, the transcontinental railroad reduced mail delivery from months to days. New types of delivery Free mail delivery to homes began in earnest in 1863 in the nation's largest cities. It was initially created as a response to grief during the Civil War. At the time, the only communication from a father, brother, husband or son usually came through letter-writing. Women lined up daily at post offices, awaiting word. They sometimes got their own letters back, with a note saying their loved one had been killed. Enthusiasm for home delivery spread quickly, and people living in rural areas wanted it, too. Despite logistical challenges, rural free delivery began expanding rapidly around 1900. By the 1920s, mail carriers mostly had replaced horse-drawn wagons with automobiles. Around that time, mail started being sent by airplane as well. The nation's first regularly scheduled airmail service began on May 15, 1918. The initial routes were between Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York, using Army pilots and planes. The post office soon took over air mail, running operations for nine years until turning to fledgling private airline companies, some of which remain major airlines. In the early days, flights were so dangerous that some pilots dubbed themselves the Suicide Club. Thirty-two pilots were killed. Major changes to the system The postal service saw major growth during President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's time in office. His New Deal plan to address the Great Depression put people to work building 2,000 new post offices. After World War II, a booming economy and growing population led to a surge in mail. To handle the increasing volume, the post office needed a faster alternative to manual sorting. So, on July 1, 1963, each post office was given a five-digit ZIP code. Previously, clerks had to memorize thousands of points of address information so they could sort the mail, Kochersperger said. The public was skeptical at first, balking at more numbers. So, the post office came up with a friendly cartoon character named Mr. ZIP, who helped convince people their mail would arrive faster. By 1970, postal workers were angry over low wages and a strike was called by leaders of the National Association of Letter Carriers union in New York. Eventually about 200,000 workers joined the postal stoppage, which led to the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970. It authorized collective bargaining rights for postal workers and transformed the taxpayer-supported Post Office Department into the United States Postal Service, a financially self-sustaining and independent agency within the executive branch. In more recent times, U.S. Postal Service workers have faced various threats, including anthrax, a serious infectious bacterial disease. Weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, four threatening letters contaminated with anthrax were sent through the mail. Two workers at a mail distribution center in Washington, D.C. died after breathing in the spores, and thousands were potentially exposed. Three other people were killed, and more than a dozen were sickened.
Hamilton Spectator
2 hours ago
- Hamilton Spectator
From Benjamin Franklin to Pony Express to anthrax: How the US Postal Service shaped a nation
The one government agency that still reaches nearly every American daily — undeterred by rain, sleet, snow or even gloom of night — turns 250 on Saturday. Established in 1775, when the Second Continental Congress appointed Benjamin Franklin as postmaster general, the postal service predates the United States itself. It was launched nearly a year before the colonies declared their break from British rule. 'The country may not even have come into existence but for the Postal Service,' said Stephen Allen Kochersperger, the postal service historian and a former local postmaster. Now grappling with concerns over its financial viability, the independent agency has had a long and colorful history. It has grown from serving the 13 colonies to delivering more mail than any other postal system in the world, reaching nearly 169 million addresses and employing more than 635,000 people. America's first postmaster When the Continental Congress met in 1775, it had two main priorities: appoint a commander to lead the war against Britain and appoint a postmaster to oversee communication among the colonies. Franklin was chosen because he had served in the British postal service for North America. He'd been dismissed in 1774, in part for his radical views. The early American postal service linked colonial leaders and the Continental Army. It also helped unify the diverse, fragmented colonies by spreading ideas of liberty and independence through letters, newspapers and pamphlets. 'People were reading, getting ideas of what it would be like to be an independent country,' Kochersperger said. Settlers, migration and roads: A nation connected When the U.S. Constitution was ratified, Congress was granted power to establish post offices and mail routes — many along existing Native American trails. These post roads, first used by mail carriers on horseback, were upgraded for stagecoaches. Some evolved into highways still used today. Historians have said this aided settler expansion into Native lands and was intertwined with the displacement of tribes. As western migration accelerated, mail was sent by ship from New York to Central America and on to California. Delivery typically took two to three months. A new business model: Putting a stamp on it Before the advent of stamps, postage was generally collected in cash from the recipient. 'By the mid 19th century, the problem is developing that the post office is carrying a lot of letters for which it's never actually getting paid,' said Daniel Piazza, chief curator of philately at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum. With no home delivery, recipients either didn't want the letters or were unaware of them. Postmasters paid to publish in newspapers lists of people with mail piling up. In 1847, the first U.S. postage stamps were issued. Making postage prepaid saved the post office the trouble of chasing down its money. 'That's a business model that's pioneered in 1847 that is still the basic business model of the postal service today,' Piazza said. A postal precursor: The Pony Express comes ... and goes While the Pony Express is legendary, it only lasted about 18 months. Operated by private carriers from April 3, 1860, to Oct. 26, 1861, a relay system of riders on horseback carried mail, often from San Francisco or Sacramento, California, to St. Joseph, Missouri, the furthest westward railroad stop. The 1,800-mile (2,900-kilometer) journey took 10 days. As a West Coast stock market emerged, most mail was financial, Piazza said. Businesses needed to send stock quotes and commodity prices across the country. 'And so they're willing to pay exorbitant amounts of money to do that,' Piazza said. 'The Pony Express was very, very expensive.' While U.S. postage to send a letter was 10 cents in 1860, it initially cost an additional $5 to send mail by Pony Express — close to $200 today. Piazza said the service was scuttled by the Civil War and made obsolete with the advent of the telegraph. Later, the transcontinental railroad reduced mail delivery from months to days. A war and sad tidings streamlined home mail delivery After early experimentation, free mail delivery to homes began in earnest in the nation's largest cities in 1863. During the Civil War, the only communication from a father, brother, husband or son usually came through letter-writing. The postal service let soldiers send mail for free and vote by mail — an early forerunner of mail-in ballots. Women lined up daily at post offices, awaiting word. Sometimes they got their own letters back, with a note saying their loved one had been killed. 'And that was a terrible scene at the post office that played out almost every day,' Kochersperger said. Postal officials in Cleveland decided to take mail to people's homes out of compassion, he said. The idea spread quickly. City home delivery proved popular, but nearly two-thirds of Americans still lived in rural areas by the end of the 19th century. Demand was so great that rural free delivery, or RFD, began expanding rapidly around 1900. Postal innovations: Using Army planes and pilots While authorized air mail flights began in 1911, the nation's first regularly scheduled air mail service began on May 15, 1918. The initial routes were between Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York, using Army pilots and planes. The post office soon took over air mail, running operations for nine years until turning to fledgling private airline companies, some of which remain major airlines. In the early days, flights were so dangerous that some pilots dubbed themselves the Suicide Club. Thirty-two pilots were killed, including four whose planes caught fire in flight, according to the National Postal Museum. There were no commercial aviation systems, navigational tools or radios, and pilots relied on landmarks to find their way. 'These pilots were flying in open cockpits and all kinds of weather. It was very risky,' Kochersperger said. FDR's New Deal brings the nation new post offices Part of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal plan to address the Great Depression was to put people to work on federal construction projects. That included roughly 2,000 new post offices. A portion of each building's budget was reserved for artwork, such as murals. Hundreds of post offices still house original art from the era. During World War II, the 6888th Central Postal Battalion, or the Six Triple Eight , an all-Black and all-female unit of the Women's Army Corps, went overseas to tackle a massive backlog of undelivered mail for troops in Europe, many of whom had been reassigned. The unit's motto was, 'No mail, low morale.' It cleared the backlog in three months. A population boom and five digits transform mail service After World War II, the economy boomed — and so did the population. The post office needed a faster way to sort massive amounts of mail. It could no longer do so by hand. On July 1, 1963, each post office was given a five-digit ZIP code. 'Previously, clerks had to memorize thousands of points of address information so they could sort the mail,' Kochersperger said. 'With the ZIP code, you didn't have to memorize anything.' The public was skeptical at first, balking at more numbers. So, the post office came up with a friendly cartoon character named Mr. ZIP, who helped convince people their mail would arrive faster. It took some getting used to, but it worked. 'Today, can you imagine life without a ZIP code?' Kochersperger asked. A mail workers' strike led to restructuring and bargaining rights In 1970, a strike was called over low wages by leaders of the National Association of Letter Carriers union in New York and quickly broadened in scope. After about 200,000 workers joined the first U.S. postal strike, President Richard Nixon called up the National Guard to help sort mail. But it was a 'disaster' after two days, Kochersperger said. The strike led to the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, which authorized collective bargaining rights for postal workers. It also transformed the taxpayer-supported Post Office Department into the United States Postal Service, a financially self-sustaining and independent agency within the executive branch. The postmaster general would work for a board of governors instead of reporting to the president. The U.S. Postal Service would set its own rates, control its finances and decide post office locations. How anthrax attacks reshaped the postal service Weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, four threatening letters contaminated with anthrax were sent through the mail, including to two U.S. senators. Two workers at a mail distribution center in Washington, D.C., died after breathing in the spores. Three other people were killed, and more than a dozen were sickened. Following a nine-year investigation , authorities concluded the person who mailed the anthrax had taken his own life in 2008 and the case was closed, but new precautions were added to protect workers. 'It changed the whole way that we sorted mail at that time,' Kochersperger said. Years later, postal workers would be designated essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and don protective gear again. What's next for the USPS? The advent of the internet and private companies like Amazon has taken a bite out of mail volume, threatening the postal service's financial viability . A 10-year modernization effort was launched to keep up with the times. Reaction has been mixed, but David Steiner , the agency's newly appointed postmaster general, says some improvements have been made. Steiner, a former FedEx board member, wants to help keep the service self-sustaining. He has said he opposes privatization, an idea raised by President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, and believes the agency has a bright future as an independent entity. 'There is much to build upon in the years ahead,' he said. ___ Haigh reported from Hartford, Conn.
The Hill
2 hours ago
- The Hill
From Benjamin Franklin to Pony Express to anthrax: How the US Postal Service shaped a nation
The one government agency that still reaches nearly every American daily — undeterred by rain, sleet, snow or even gloom of night — turns 250 on Saturday. Established in 1775, when the Second Continental Congress appointed Benjamin Franklin as postmaster general, the postal service predates the United States itself. It was launched nearly a year before the colonies declared their break from British rule. 'The country may not even have come into existence but for the Postal Service,' said Stephen Allen Kochersperger, the postal service historian and a former local postmaster. Now grappling with concerns over its financial viability, the independent agency has had a long and colorful history. It has grown from serving the 13 colonies to delivering more mail than any other postal system in the world, reaching nearly 169 million addresses and employing more than 635,000 people. America's first postmaster When the Continental Congress met in 1775, it had two main priorities: appoint a commander to lead the war against Britain and appoint a postmaster to oversee communication among the colonies. Franklin was chosen because he had served in the British postal service for North America. He'd been dismissed in 1774, in part for his radical views. The early American postal service linked colonial leaders and the Continental Army. It also helped unify the diverse, fragmented colonies by spreading ideas of liberty and independence through letters, newspapers and pamphlets. 'People were reading, getting ideas of what it would be like to be an independent country,' Kochersperger said. Settlers, migration and roads: A nation connected When the U.S. Constitution was ratified, Congress was granted power to establish post offices and mail routes — many along existing Native American trails. These post roads, first used by mail carriers on horseback, were upgraded for stagecoaches. Some evolved into highways still used today. Historians have said this aided settler expansion into Native lands and was intertwined with the displacement of tribes. As western migration accelerated, mail was sent by ship from New York to Central America and on to California. Delivery typically took two to three months. A new business model: Putting a stamp on it Before the advent of stamps, postage was generally collected in cash from the recipient. 'By the mid 19th century, the problem is developing that the post office is carrying a lot of letters for which it's never actually getting paid,' said Daniel Piazza, chief curator of philately at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum. With no home delivery, recipients either didn't want the letters or were unaware of them. Postmasters paid to publish in newspapers lists of people with mail piling up. In 1847, the first U.S. postage stamps were issued. Making postage prepaid saved the post office the trouble of chasing down its money. 'That's a business model that's pioneered in 1847 that is still the basic business model of the postal service today,' Piazza said. A postal precursor: The Pony Express comes … and goes While the Pony Express is legendary, it only lasted about 18 months. Operated by private carriers from April 3, 1860, to Oct. 26, 1861, a relay system of riders on horseback carried mail, often from San Francisco or Sacramento, California, to St. Joseph, Missouri, the furthest westward railroad stop. The 1,800-mile (2,900-kilometer) journey took 10 days. As a West Coast stock market emerged, most mail was financial, Piazza said. Businesses needed to send stock quotes and commodity prices across the country. 'And so they're willing to pay exorbitant amounts of money to do that,' Piazza said. 'The Pony Express was very, very expensive.' While U.S. postage to send a letter was 10 cents in 1860, it initially cost an additional $5 to send mail by Pony Express — close to $200 today. Piazza said the service was scuttled by the Civil War and made obsolete with the advent of the telegraph. Later, the transcontinental railroad reduced mail delivery from months to days. A war and sad tidings streamlined home mail delivery After early experimentation, free mail delivery to homes began in earnest in the nation's largest cities in 1863. During the Civil War, the only communication from a father, brother, husband or son usually came through letter-writing. The postal service let soldiers send mail for free and vote by mail — an early forerunner of mail-in ballots. Women lined up daily at post offices, awaiting word. Sometimes they got their own letters back, with a note saying their loved one had been killed. 'And that was a terrible scene at the post office that played out almost every day,' Kochersperger said. Postal officials in Cleveland decided to take mail to people's homes out of compassion, he said. The idea spread quickly. City home delivery proved popular, but nearly two-thirds of Americans still lived in rural areas by the end of the 19th century. Demand was so great that rural free delivery, or RFD, began expanding rapidly around 1900. Postal innovations: Using Army planes and pilots While authorized air mail flights began in 1911, the nation's first regularly scheduled air mail service began on May 15, 1918. The initial routes were between Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York, using Army pilots and planes. The post office soon took over air mail, running operations for nine years until turning to fledgling private airline companies, some of which remain major airlines. In the early days, flights were so dangerous that some pilots dubbed themselves the Suicide Club. Thirty-two pilots were killed, including four whose planes caught fire in flight, according to the National Postal Museum. There were no commercial aviation systems, navigational tools or radios, and pilots relied on landmarks to find their way. 'These pilots were flying in open cockpits and all kinds of weather. It was very risky,' Kochersperger said. FDR's New Deal brings the nation new post offices Part of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal plan to address the Great Depression was to put people to work on federal construction projects. That included roughly 2,000 new post offices. A portion of each building's budget was reserved for artwork, such as murals. Hundreds of post offices still house original art from the era. During World War II, the 6888th Central Postal Battalion, or the Six Triple Eight, an all-Black and all-female unit of the Women's Army Corps, went overseas to tackle a massive backlog of undelivered mail for troops in Europe, many of whom had been reassigned. The unit's motto was, 'No mail, low morale.' It cleared the backlog in three months. A population boom and five digits transform mail service After World War II, the economy boomed — and so did the population. The post office needed a faster way to sort massive amounts of mail. It could no longer do so by hand. On July 1, 1963, each post office was given a five-digit ZIP code. 'Previously, clerks had to memorize thousands of points of address information so they could sort the mail,' Kochersperger said. 'With the ZIP code, you didn't have to memorize anything.' The public was skeptical at first, balking at more numbers. So, the post office came up with a friendly cartoon character named Mr. ZIP, who helped convince people their mail would arrive faster. It took some getting used to, but it worked. 'Today, can you imagine life without a ZIP code?' Kochersperger asked. A mail workers' strike led to restructuring and bargaining rights In 1970, a strike was called over low wages by leaders of the National Association of Letter Carriers union in New York and quickly broadened in scope. After about 200,000 workers joined the first U.S. postal strike, President Richard Nixon called up the National Guard to help sort mail. But it was a 'disaster' after two days, Kochersperger said. The strike led to the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, which authorized collective bargaining rights for postal workers. It also transformed the taxpayer-supported Post Office Department into the United States Postal Service, a financially self-sustaining and independent agency within the executive branch. The postmaster general would work for a board of governors instead of reporting to the president. The U.S. Postal Service would set its own rates, control its finances and decide post office locations. How anthrax attacks reshaped the postal service Weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, four threatening letters contaminated with anthrax were sent through the mail, including to two U.S. senators. Two workers at a mail distribution center in Washington, D.C., died after breathing in the spores. Three other people were killed, and more than a dozen were sickened. Following a nine-year investigation, authorities concluded the person who mailed the anthrax had taken his own life in 2008 and the case was closed, but new precautions were added to protect workers. 'It changed the whole way that we sorted mail at that time,' Kochersperger said. Years later, postal workers would be designated essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and don protective gear again. What's next for the USPS? The advent of the internet and private companies like Amazon has taken a bite out of mail volume, threatening the postal service's financial viability. A 10-year modernization effort was launched to keep up with the times. Reaction has been mixed, but David Steiner, the agency's newly appointed postmaster general, says some improvements have been made. Steiner, a former FedEx board member, wants to help keep the service self-sustaining. He has said he opposes privatization, an idea raised by President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, and believes the agency has a bright future as an independent entity. 'There is much to build upon in the years ahead,' he said.
