This year, Memorial Day falls on May 27. In my far-off childhood, it was fixed on May 30. But like so many other civil holidays, in 1971 it was transferred to the nearest Monday before that date. Nevertheless, despite that switch it retains much of the lustre it had when I was young. In cemeteries – veterans’ and civilian alike – across these United States, there will be ceremonies praising the valour of our gallant dead in the many wars this nation has fought and continues to fight. In cities and towns throughout the country, veterans, serving troops, and fraternal organisations will parade in honour of their fallen comrades and predecessors. In both ceremonies and parades, the flag for and under which they fell will be prominently displayed. Where Veterans Day in November honours all who have served in the armed forces, this observance is given up to those who made the ultimate sacrifice. It is also the opening of summer, as numerous cookouts and barbecues coast-to-coast testify. Our Memorial Day observances, from Arlington National Cemetery to Hollywood’s Forest Lawn, find their roots in the aftermath of the War Between the States. “Decoration Day”, as it was first called, had its origin in the actions of Southern women very soon after the war, who began strewing flowers on the graves of both sides. The New York Tribune reported in 1867 on the women of Columbus, Mississippi, doing so, and the many bereaved took up the practice in the North. So rapidly popular did it become (over two dozen locales claim the honour of being the first to do it) that the following year the head of the Union veterans’ organisation, the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), proclaimed that it should be observed every May 30. In 1873 New York became the first state to make it an official holiday – and by 1890 most northern states had done so. The South – still bearing the scar of war and reconstruction – opted to honour its own dead on other days: January 19 in Texas; April 26 in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Mississippi; May 10 in North and South Carolina; and June 3 in Louisiana and Tennessee. Nevertheless, the Decoration Day phenomenon became an important part in sewing up the emotional wounds of the bloodiest war this country has ever fought. Robert Haven Schauffler, in his 1911 anthology on the observance, Memorial Day, quotes an anonymous journalist: