Bonnie Brown

By Bonnie Brown

Columnist

Summer officially begins on Friday, June 20, but Memorial Day marks the “unofficial” start to summer.  Many people use the long holiday to travel or host a cookout.  Many weddings and other celebrations are planned for this long weekend.  

Memorial Day symbolizes so much more by honoring those men and women who died while in military service to their country.  Similar to Thanksgiving and Easter, Memorial Day is observed on a different date each year, unlike Christmas or Independence Day, which are on the same date year over year, but not the same day.

Memorial Day became a national holiday in 1971 by an act of Congress, but its history goes back to early rural America when people would observe the tradition of cleaning and decorating graves; thus, the name of “Decoration Day” applied.  It was often celebrated with family reunions and gatherings.  I remember as a child, it being called this.  And it was practically an obligation that we would traipse to the cemetery to refresh the flowers placed there.  I also remember the red poppy lapel ornament, often sold for a modest donation.  Nearly every adult would wear one.  

A woman named Moina Michael read “In Flanders Field” in the pages of Ladies’ Home Journal that November, just two days before the armistice.  She vowed to always wear a red poppy.  She came up with the idea of making and selling red silk poppies to raise money to support returning veterans.  The poppy came to symbolize the remembrance of the war dead.  

Dr. John McCrae, a Canadian physician enlisted when World War I broke out in 1914.  He was appointed as a medical officer and in April 1915 was stationed near Belgium in the area called Flanders.   He observed that the common red field poppy was one of the first plants to reappear in the war-torn battlefields of Europe.  Its seeds had been scattered in the wind, were dormant, and germinated only because the ground was disturbed by the brutal battles.  According to History.com, 87,000 Allied soldiers were killed, wounded, or went missing in the battle as well as 37,000 on the German side.  

On May 2, 1915, McCrae’s friend, Lt. Alexis Helmer, was killed in action and buried in a makeshift grave. Dr. McCrae observed the emergence of the poppies and penned the poem “In Flanders Fields” the next day.  It was first published in a magazine in England and quickly came to symbolize the sacrifices of those killed in the war.  Dr. McCrae himself died not from a war wound but from pneumonia in 1918.  

Truly, when I was younger, I didn’t give much thought to Memorial Day and why it was celebrated.  But as I grew older and thought about my classmates going off to Vietnam, then my son in Desert Storm, and many other friends and acquaintances whose children have been in harm’s way as battles raged on, I certainly acknowledge the loss of life and mourn these brave souls who paid the ultimate price.  In World War II my father was listed as missing in action and presumed dead.  Thankfully, that was not the case, and he returned home but I can only imagine what his mother and family felt when they received this news, and how relieved they were when they found out he was still alive. I’m certain each of you has similar remembrances of family members who died serving our country.    

So, pause for a moment this Memorial Day weekend as you go about your activities.  Let us be mindful of the women and men who have died for our country and the cause of others and pay homage to their legacy of bravery and sacrifice.