Many people, myself included, forget that Memorial Day is not just another federal holiday - albeit one with parades, festivals, flags and flowers - but is also a day to remember the soldiers, sailors and pilots who fought and perished in our nation's wars. Here's the government's official version on the origins of Memorial Day and other interesting tidbits, covering "Confederate Memorial Day" observances, the "Moment of Remembrance" established in 2000, and even Pericles. (Pericles??)
Incidentally, the poppies in Britain, her colonies and even elsewhere in Europe are ... disturbingly evocative, once you know the story. The short version is that after the Napoleonic Wars, the first flowers to grow in the grave fields of Flanders.
Demonstrating my distressing lack of cultural awareness, the Women's Military Memorial (Women in Military Service for America Memorial, for long) has been holding "one of the major Memorial Day programs in the nation's capital" for 12 years, and I've only discovered it for the first time today. Interestingly enough, the memorial has been on my radar for awhile now, because I've been planning a visit to find records of my maternal grandmother, who was a Lt. Nurse in the Army in World War II. Who deployed to South East Asia. Which is rather exciting!
So. As I prepare for my holiday, I'll take a moment to remember the fallen. And the poppies. And the survivors.
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