Memorial Day is a holiday that is always celebrated on the last Monday of May this year it takes place on May 27 2024. But what is Memorial Day celebrating and what started it?

Memorial Day is a federal holiday that honors the men and women who died while serving in the US military.

Memorial day dates back to the Civil War, according to usmemorialday.org.  It was started by General John Logan in 1868, who was the national commander of the Grand army of the republic, and, in his General order, he said the 30th of May would be called Decoration Day.

According to history.com, it was known as Decoration day until 1968 when Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Actm which made Memorial Day always on the last Monday of May. The change went into effect in 1971 which also is when memorial day was declared a federal holiday.

Memorial Day parades are among other popular ways to celebrate Memorial Day. Memorial Day parades take place in a lot of cities and towns across the USA and usually contain military personnel and veterans.

Another popular memorial day celebration includes red poppies.  According to usmemorialday.org, this tradition comes from a WW1 poem called “In Flanders Fields” by Mona Michael.

Hopefully you learned something new about Memorial Day from this article and you know just a little bit more about why we have the day off.