Cord Moving and Storage Honoring the True Significance of Memorial Day
Memorial Day was originally established as Decoration Day in 1868 to honor the fallen soldiers of the Civil War. Due to the excessive number of American soldiers who died in battle national cemeteries began forming. On the first Decoration Day, 5,000 participants gathered at Arlington National Cemetery to decorate the graves of the 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers buried there. Southern states refused to acknowledge the day until after World War 1, when Memorial Day changed from honoring those who died during the Civil War to those fallen in any war.
Memorial Day Customs
Over the years, several customs and symbols became associated with the holiday:
Since the late 1950s the 1,200 soldiers of the U.S. 3rd Infantry Brigade place small American flags at each of the 260,000 gravestones at Arlington National Cemetery on the Thursday before Memorial Day. They then patrol the cemetery 24 hours a day during the Memorial Day weekend to ensure that each flag remains standing.
In 2000 – President William J. Clinton promoted a “National Moment of Remembrance” to occur at 3pm (local time) on each Memorial Day – encouraging Americans everywhere to remember and reflect on the sacrifices made by so many to provide freedom for all.
It is customary to fly the American flag at “half staff” until noon, and then raise it to full staff until sunset.
Taps, the 24-note bugle call, is played at all military funerals and memorial services.
The World War I poem “In Flanders Fields” inspired the Memorial Day custom of wearing red artificial poppies. Red poppies are the flowers which grew on the battlefields after WW1 ended and are now sold to honor those who died serving our nation and raise money to benefit servicemen in need.
Beyond these customs, how can we honor the true significance of Memorial Day as Cord Moving and Storage is doing?
Wear a Memorial Day Button
Visit cemeteries and place flags or flowers on the graves of our fallen heroes
Fly the U.S. Flag at half-staff until noon
Visit memorials
Aid families of our fallen heroes and our disabled veterans:
Donate or learn more about the Gary Sinise Foundation and the R.I.S.E program here: https://www.garysinisefoundation.org/
To donate to the USO or learn more about the nonprofit, go to https://www.uso.org/partners/northamerican.
The USO program partner TAPS (Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors) CEO Bonnie Carroll wrote a blog title “Who Memorial Day is For” for the Huffington Post in 2016 it is worth the read.