MEMORIAL DAY

also called Decoration Day, public legal holiday in the United States and its territories and among its armed forces, honouring U.S. citizens who have died in war. Originally commemorating soldiers killed in the American Civil War, the observance was later extended to all U.S. war dead. Most states conform to the federal practice of observing the holiday on the last Monday in May, which began in 1971, but a few retain the long-established day of celebration, May 30. National observance is marked officially by the placing of a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. The custom itself of honouring the graves of the war dead began before the close of the Civil War. In the South, the town of Columbus, Miss., claims origination of a formal observance for both the Union and the Confederate dead in 1866. Waterloo, N.Y., is cited as the birthplace of the observance in the North in the same year. There was no fixed day of national celebration, however, until 1868, when Commander in Chief John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic issued a general order designating May 30, 1868, for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion. In addition to the national holiday, Confederate memorial days continue to be celebrated in some Southern states. Similar commemorations are observed in numerous other countries.