This Memorial Day post is an annual distribution. It seems as the years go by and more friends and family pass that important traditions of the past fade further from the culture. Please share this post on Facebook and other vehicles with your friends and family to remind them of the importance of such solemn traditions. Thank you
I vividly recall from my childhood the prominence of Memorial Day among the pantheon of holidays. It was one of the two big civic holidays. The other being the Fourth of July. At a young age I could sense the difference between the two – one celebratory and one solemn. Memorial Day is larger in my memory. The holiday was specifically to remember the dead of war, but the event was broader in that it was also an opportunity to visit and reflect more generally on relatives and friends who had passed. It also related to the continuation of a tradition that emerged in the mid-1800s that made cemeteries places for peaceful meditation with nature’s beauty and communing with one’s family and friends – both living and dead. As can be said of many traditions – times have changed.