Long Island Memorial Day Fireworks Celebration and Veterans Events in Nassau County, Suffolk County, Long Island, New York. |
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Long Island Memorial Day Fireworks Celebrations and Veterans Events
Celebrating
Memorial Day on Long Island, New York |
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Memorial Day Fireworks Celebration and Veterans Events
There are many fireworks displays and celebrations across Long Island to celebrate Memorial Day and veterans who served our country.
Click here for Memorial Day Fireworks Celebration / Veterans Events on Long Island, New York. |
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Early Observances of
Memorial Day
The Civil War claimed more lives than any conflict in
U.S. history, requiring the establishment of the
country’s first national cemeteries. By the late 1860s
Americans in various towns and cities had begun holding
springtime tributes to these countless fallen soldiers,
decorating their graves with flowers and reciting
prayers.
It is unclear where exactly this tradition originated;
numerous different communities may have independently
initiated the memorial gatherings. Nevertheless, in 1966
the federal government declared Waterloo, New York, the
official birthplace of Memorial Day. Waterloo - which
had first celebrated the day on May 5, 1866 - was chosen
because it hosted an annual, community-wide event,
during which businesses closed and residents decorated
the graves of soldiers with flowers and flags.
Decoration Day
On May 5, 1862, General John A. Logan, leader of an
organization for Northern Civil War veterans, called for
a nationwide day of remembrance later that month. “The
30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of
strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the
graves of comrades who died in defense of their country
during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in
almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the
land,” he proclaimed. The date of Decoration Day, as he
called it, was chosen because it wasn’t the anniversary
of any particular battle.
On the first Decoration Day, General James Garfield made
a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, and 5,000
participants decorated the graves of the 20,000 Union
and Confederate soldiers buried there. Many Northern
states held similar commemorative events and reprised
the tradition in subsequent years; by 1890 each one had
made Decoration Day an official state holiday. Many
Southern states, on the other hand, continued to honor
their dead on separate days until after World War I.
Evolution of Memorial Day
Memorial Day, as Decoration Day gradually came to be
known, originally honored only those lost while fighting
in the Civil War. But during World War I the United
States found itself embroiled in another major conflict,
and the holiday evolved to commemorate American military
personnel who died in all wars.
For decades, Memorial Day continued to be observed on
May 30, the date Logan had selected for the first
Decoration Day. But in 1968 Congress passed the Uniform
Monday Holiday Act, which established Memorial Day as
the last Monday in May in order to create a three-day
weekend for federal employees; the change went into
effect in 1971. The same law also declared Memorial Day
a federal holiday.
Memorial Day Traditions
Cities and towns across the United States host Memorial
Day parades each year, often incorporating military
personnel and members of veterans’ organizations. Some
of the largest parades take place in Chicago, New York
and Washington, D.C. Americans also observe Memorial Day
by visiting cemeteries and memorials. On a less somber
note, many people throw parties and barbecues on the
holiday, perhaps because it unofficially marks the
beginning of summer.
Source
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/woodrow-wilson-proclaims-the-first-mothers-day-holiday
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