Today’s Post by Joe Farace
Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.—Mark Twain
For those readers living outside the USA, here’s a little background on this uniquely American holiday…
Memorial Day is an American holiday that’s dedicated to honoring and mourning the U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. The holiday began after the American Civil War as a way to commemorate fallen Union soldiers. By the 20th century, Memorial Day had been extended to honor all Americans who has died in all wars. Then known as Decoration Day and observed on May 30 and when I was a kid, Memorial Day was still called Decoration Day by everybody I knew.
The first national observance of Memorial Day occurred on May 30, 1868. After the Civil War, the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Union army veterans that was founded in Decatur, Illinois, established the day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. By the 20th century, there were competing Union and Confederate holiday traditions that were celebrated on different days but ultimately they merged into Memorial Day that eventually was extended to honor all Americans who died while in the military service.
On June 28,1968, the US Congress passed the Uniform Holidays Bill that changed the datesof four holidays, including Memorial Day, from their traditional dates to a specified Monday for the sake of those three-day weekend holidays that many people love so much.. This is a practice I’m not personally a fan of because I feel it doesn’t honor the intention of the original holiday.
How I made this photograph: The above image was made in an outbuilding at a automobile salvage facility in Erie, Colorado. It was made using with a Canon EOS 1D Mark II N and an EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM lens with an exposure of 1/80 sec at f/5.6 and ISO 800.