Memorial Day - Originally Known As Decoration Day

It is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation’s service. Naturally, every community would like to be the location of the beginning of the commemorative day. There is evidence that organized women’s groups in the South decorated graves before the end of the Civil War.

President Lyndon Johnson, in May 1966, declared Waterloo, N.Y. the birthplace of Memorial Day. It is difficult to say just when and where the practice officially began. It is believed the idea was taking place in many different areas where people gathered to honor the war dead. Each of the many gatherings contributed to a growing movement that culminated in General Logan giving his official proclamation in 1868.

It is not important where the first ceremony was held. It is important that Memorial Day was established to honor those who gave their lives for the benefit of maintaining freedom of this country.

Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on May 5, 1868 by General John Logan, the national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic and was first observed on May 30, 1868. The celebration at that historic event included the placing of flowers on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery.

The first state to recognize the day was New York in 1873. By 1890 it was recognized by all of the northern states. The south refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war.

Now, it is a holiday celebrated in almost every state on the last Monday in May to ensure a three-day weekend for Federal holidays. And every so many years the holiday does fall on May 30, such as this year.

Several southern states have an additional separate day for honoring the Confederate war dead: January 19 in Texas, April 26 in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi; May 10 in South Carolina; and June 3 (Jefferson Davis’ birthday) in Louisiana and Tennessee.

Services Locally—Crystal Lake—11 a.m. Memorial Day parade from the high school traveling east on Franklin Avenue, north on Williams Street and west on Woodstock Street to the Union Cemetery for a memorial service. If it rains, the parade will be cancelled and the ceremony will take place in Crystal Lake Central High School Field House.

At nearby Cary, a parade will begin at Holy Cross Lutheran Church, First Street and Three Oaks Road, travel south on First Street to Cary veterans Park for a memorial service.

Woodstock ‘s service is scheduled to get underway at 10:00 a.m. in the park on the Square, followed immediately by a parade around the square, up West Jackson Street, back down West Judd Street and disband at the Throop Street parking lot. Lunch is to be served after the parade at the VFW Post 5040,

240 N. Throop Street

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Celebrations are taking place mostly on Monday with a special short ceremony and other activities planned, mostly dependent upon the weather.