I am not sure how many younger Americans know the meaning of Memorial Day or, sadly, even care, but it has become a day to honor those who gave their lives for our freedoms and for the freedom of people around the world.
Even those of us who understand the holiday’s significance generally have no idea of how it originated. What is now Memorial Day began as Decoration Day, which was celebrated in the North as a victory over the Confederacy. The Civil War, of course, cost the country more lives — more than 600,000 — than we have lost in every war since.
It wasn’t until 1968, the year I joined the U.S. Navy as an Ensign, that Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which moved Memorial Day to the last Monday in May, creating a three-day weekend. In 1971, the year I returned from service in Vietnam, it was officially declared a federal holiday under the name Memorial
I only mention my service days because of the curious connection I just discovered between the holiday’s modern originals, date-wise.
President Trump recently announced the creation of two national observances. First, he is making November 11, which we now celebrate as Veterans Day, “Victory Day for World War I.” November 11, of course, originally known as Armistice Day, was the day that World War I ended at 11 a.m. with a mutual cessation of hostilities.
Sadly, that armistice didn’t last as Adolph Hitler later plunged Europe into another war, which spread globally and became known as World War II. Trump is now naming May 8, widely celebrated in Europe as the end to Hitler’s war, as Victory Day for World War II.
Of course, neither declaration has the force of a nationally recognized holiday, though Veterans Day remains a federal holiday. Trump himself noted on Truth Social that “We will not be closing the Country for these two very important Holidays …. because we already have too many Holidays in America,”