This file includes information, poems and quotes about Memorial Day.
Also see Military, Veterans Day, and The Meaning of Memorial Day.

Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is a day for visiting cemeteries and memorials to mourn military members who died in the line of duty. Volunteers place American flags on the graves of military personnel in national cemeteries. Others, such as family and friends, also put flowers on the graves of those who died in the US military.

Memorial Day is one of the federal holidays in the United States for honoring U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. Memorial Day is on May 30 but it is observed on the last Monday of May. It is also considered by many to be the unofficial beginning of summer in the United States. No one knows for sure why the 30th was selected for the date - some say it was the date of a battle in the civil war while others claim the date was chosen because it was the optimal date for flowers to be in bloom in the North.

The first national observance of Memorial Day was in 1868. In 1971, Congress standardized the holiday as "Memorial Day" and changed its observance to the last Monday in May in order to create another 3-day weekend (they did the same with three other holidays).

On Memorial Day, the United States flag is to be raised briskly to the top of the staff and then solemnly lowered to the half-staff position, where it remains until noon. It is then raised to full-staff for the rest of the day.


Page Toppers


Memorial Day Quotes


Decoration Day

(Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)

Sleep, comrades, sleep and rest
On this Field of the Grounded Arms,
Where foes no more molest,
Nor sentry's shot alarms!

Ye have slept on the ground before,
And started to your feet
At the cannon's sudden roar,
Or the drum's redoubling beat.

But in this camp of Death
No sound your slumber breaks;
Here is no fevered breath,
No wound that bleeds and aches.

All is repose and peace,
Untrampled lies the sod;
The shouts of battle cease,
It is the Truce of God!

Rest, comrades, rest and sleep!
The thoughts of men shall be
As sentinels to keep
Your rest from danger free.

Your silent tents of green
We deck with fragrant flowers;
Yours has the suffering been,
The memory shall be ours.


Fifty Thousand Names

(George Jones, written by Jamie O'Hara)

There's teddy bears and high school rings,
And old photographs that mamas bring.
Of daddies with their young boys playin' ball.
There's combat boots he used to wear,
When he was sent over there.
And there's 50,000 names carved in the wall.

There's cigarettes and cans of beer,
And notes that say: "I miss you dear."
And children who don't say anything at all.
There's purple hearts and packs of gum,
Fatherless daughters and fatherless sons.
And there's 50,000 names carved in the wall

They come from all across this land,
In pick-up trucks and mini vans,
Searchin' for a boy from long ago.
They scan the wall and find his name,
The teardrops fall like pourin' rain,
Then silently they leave a gift and go.

There's stars of David and rosary beads,
And crucifixion figurines,
And flowers of all colors large and small.
There's a Boy Scout badge and a merit pin,
Little American flags wavin' in the wind.
And there's 50,000 names carved in the wall

50,000 names carved in the wall.


The Unknown

(E.O. Laughlin)

I do not understand . . .
They bring so many, many flowers to me--
Rainbows of roses, wreaths from every land;
And hosts of solemn strangers come to see
My tomb here on these quiet, wooded heights.
My tomb here seems to be
One of the sights.

The low-voiced men, who speak
Of me quite fondly, call me "The Unknown":
But now and then at dusk, Madonna-meek,
Bent, mournful mothers come to me alone
And whisper down--the flowers and grasses through--
Such names as "Jim" and "John" . . .
I wish they knew.

And once my sweetheart came.
She did not--nay, of course she could not--know,
But thought of me and crooned to me the name
She called my by--how many years ago?
A very precious name. Her eyes were wet,
Yet glowing, flaming so . . .
She won't forget.


Songs about Memorial Day

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