Tag Archives: Memorial Day

Visiting the Departed

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This Coptic icon for the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, shows St. John ‘in clothing of camel’s hair’, with a cross (here in the Coptic Tau (T) form), beholding his own head. The axe at right refers to this line from his own preaching: “And even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” [Mt 3.10; Lk 3.9]

Decoration Day was first observed on May 5 in the U.S., with the tradition of decorating soldiers’ graves from the Civil War with flowers. On May 5, 1868, General John A. Logan issued a proclamation calling for “Decoration Day” to be observed annually and nationwide; he was commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of and for Union Civil War veterans. With his proclamation, Logan adopted the Memorial Day practice that had begun in the Southern states three years earlier. The observance date was later moved to May 30th and included American graves from World War I and World War II, and became better known as Memorial Day. In 1971, Congress moved Memorial Day to the last Monday in May, thus creating a three-day holiday weekend.

In much of Central and Eastern Europe, the Orthodox Church celebrates the Tuesday after Thomas Sunday as the “Day of Rejoicing” (Radonitsa) by visiting graves and celebrating memorial services for the departed for the first time since before Palm Sunday. (Many monasteries depended on donations in exchange for their prayers for the departed; resuming these services was important for the financial survival of many small monastic communities.) The Day of Rejoicing also begins the marriage season. Since weddings are forbidden during the Great Lenten Fast (because that time should be devoted to penance and self-examination, rather than merrymaking), as well as during Bright Week (because at that time the Church celebrates nothing else except the Resurrection), with Radonitsa comes the time for weddings.

Among Eastern Christians, the Beheading of St. John the Baptist on August 29 is the day to pray for soldiers slain in battle and to visit their graves as established in 1769 at the time of Russia’s war with the Turks and the Poles. The day is always observed with strict fasting, and in some places the pious will not eat food from a flat plate, use a knife, or eat round food on this day because of the association of these things with the Gospel account of St. John’s beheading.

Decoration Day 2018

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Originally called Decoration Day, the holiday was created to commemorate the roughly 625,000 Union and Confederate soldiers who died during the Civil War.

Originally called Decoration Day, the holiday was created to commemorate the roughly 625,000 Union and Confederate soldiers who died during the Civil War.

Memorial Day, the holiday which many in the US consider the beginning of summer, was originally known as “Decoration Day” and was the commemoration of those fallen in battle — at first, those who had fallen in the battles of the Civil War and then those who had fallen in any battle. People went to the burial grounds to decorate the graves of the fallen with flowers and banners. They might also have picnics, an American variation on the ancient “memorial meals” held in honor of the dead.

Decorating graves and meals to mark certain anniversaries of death were common in Greek, Roman, and Jewish, as well as early Christian, societies. One of the benefits of joining a burial society or club in classical Rome was that the club members were obligated to hold meals in honor and memory of the deceased. Sometimes food was left atop the grave for the departed, as well as shared among the living. It was these annual memorial meals at the gravesides of the dead that eventually became the annual saints days to mark the “birthday into heaven” of the dead.

Graves would be decorated not only to mark the burial site but to appease the dead as well, who might come back to harass their heirs for neglecting their graves. Flowers, a marker of life, were among the most common means of appeasing the dead although more substantial and permanent decorations — such as carvings, headstones, or statues — were used by the wealthy.

Nowadays often considered a scary or forbidding location, graveyards and cemeteries were common places for communities to gather. Over the centuries, many rules developed to curtail dancing, markets, drinking, and parties among the graves which only means that people kept dancing and drinking and holding markets or parties among the dead. No one makes rules against things that don’t happen, after all.

This year, how many Americans will mark the unofficial beginning of summer by visiting a graveyard?

Decoration Day

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Originally called Decoration Day, the holiday was created to commemorate the roughly 625,000 Union and Confederate soldiers who died during the Civil War.

Originally called Decoration Day, the holiday was created to commemorate the roughly 625,000 Union and Confederate soldiers who died during the Civil War.

Memorial Day, the holiday which many in the US consider the beginning of summer, was originally known as “Decoration Day” and was the commemoration of those fallen in battle — at first, those who had fallen in the battles of the Civil War and then those who had fallen in any battle. People went to the burial grounds to decorate the graves of the fallen with flowers and banners. They might also have picnics, an American variation on the ancient “memorial meals” held in honor of the dead.

Decorating graves and meals to mark certain anniversaries of death were common in Greek, Roman, and Jewish, as well as early Christian, societies. One of the benefits of joining a burial society or club in classical Rome was that the club members were obligated to hold meals in honor and memory of the deceased. Sometimes food was left atop the grave for the departed, as well as shared among the living. It was these annual memorial meals at the gravesides of the dead that eventually became the annual saints days to mark the “birthday into heaven” of the dead.

Graves would be decorated not only to mark the burial site but to appease the dead as well, who might come back to harass their heirs for neglecting their graves. Flowers, a marker of life, were among the most common means of appeasing the dead although more substantial and permanent decorations — such as carvings, headstones, or statues — were used by the wealthy.

Nowadays often considered a scary or forbidding location, graveyards and cemeteries were common places for communities to gather. Over the centuries, many rules developed to curtail dancing, markets, drinking, and parties among the graves which only means that people kept dancing and drinking and holding markets or parties among the dead. No one makes rules against things that don’t happen, after all.

This year, how many Americans will mark the unofficial beginning of summer by visiting a graveyard?