10 Fun Facts about Memorial Day
Monday is Memorial Day and many will have the day off but let’s remember that Memorial Day is a day to remember those brave men and women who have given up their lives in defense of our country.
In honor of Memorial Day, here are 10 Facts about the holiday.
1. Memorial Day is observed on the last Monday of May.
2. Memorial Day was observed for those who died in the Civil War but now honors who died Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Iraq and Afghan Wars.
3. Memorial Day was originally known as Declaration Day.
4. Memorial Day became a federal holiday in 1971.
5. Each year on Memorial Day at 3:00 pm local time, a national moment of remembrance is asked of Americans to pause for one minute. This National Moment of Remembrance was established by Congress in 2000.
6. Waterloo, N.Y. is considered the birthplace of this holiday because the people of Waterloo were the first people to proclaim a day on May 5, 1866 to honor the soldiers who died in the Civil War.
7. The Memorial Day custom of wearing artificial poppies was inspired by John McCrea’s World War I poem “In Flanders Fields,”
8. On Memorial Day, you are supposed to fly the flag at half staff until noon, and then raise it to the top of the staff until sunset.
9. The Indianapolis 500 has been held on Memorial Day since 1911.
10. Memorial Day is the unofficial start to the summer.
Disclosure: NYC Single Mom was not compensated for this post.
Cools says
That is DECORATION Day
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