HOW DECORATION DAY BECAME MEMORIAL DAY

This date is the first Memorial Day observed under the 1971 Federal law establishing the last Monday in May as Memorial Day. The practice of decorating soldiers’ graves with flowers is an ancient custom. Soldiers’ graves were decorated in the U.S. before, during, and after the Civil War. The preferred name for the holiday up to 1882 was Decoration Day. The name began to gradually change to Memorial Day, especially after World War II.

The first mention of Memorial Day in Post 132’s Meeting Minutes was on April 18, 1921. There the Post authorized a donation to the National Headquarters to decorate graves on Memorial Day of men buried in France. The photo here shows Soldiers’ Rest area in the New Ulm City Cemetery decorated for Memorial Day 2017.