This is Pastor Tim’s article which appeared in the Evening Leader on Tuesday, May 21, 2024
Can we just all agree on one thing? In the great debate over what is the best holiday, Memorial Day does not get enough love. Sure, I love Christmas and Easter, I also love Thanksgiving and I even have some appreciation of Halloween. But can we just give props to whoever set up the holiday we know as Memorial Day? In 1971, Congress established that Memorial Day was to be observed on the last Monday of May. That has made Memorial Day become the official kick off for Summer. Which means we begin summer by celebrating the brave men and women who served in the Military to give and preserve our freedom and then we end summer with Labor Day, the day we celebrate the brave men and women who go to work to use that freedom to build the incredible lives that we all live.
Memorial Day was originally known as Decoration Day and it was set up by General John Long on May 5, 1868, to honor those who died in the Civil War. There are some traditions in South Carolina that say that as early as 1865, the graves of fallen soldiers were decorated with flowers by freed slaves in gratitude for their freedom. After WW1, Decoration Day became Memorial Day where we honored all fallen American soldiers of all wars. It was moved to May 30 because that is when flowers were most likely to be in bloom. Later, it was moved to the last Monday of May to make it a whole weekend celebration.
One of the big events associated with Memorial Day was the Indianapolis 500, which had its first race in 1911. The Indy 500 was scheduled for late May because that was the time the farmers took a break from the fields after bailing hay. When Decoration (later Memorial) Day was moved to the same time frame, the Indy 500 and Memorial Day were linked together.
As a side note, the winner of the first Indy 500 in 1911 was Ray Harroun. It took almost 7 hours to complete the race and had an average speed of 74.6 MPH. Many people accused Harroun of cheating because his car had only one seat in it for the driver. The rest of the cars were 2-seaters so that the onboard mechanic had a place to sit. Harroun also used a never-before-seen invention in his car known as the rear view mirror. This race also used for the first-time a pace car which allowed all of the cars to begin the race at a blazing 40 MPH.
On Memorial Day, flags are to be at half-staff only until noon to honor our fallen soldiers. At noon, the flag is to be raised to full staff to signify hope and resilience for the future. It is true that Memorial Day is a time of reflecting on the past, it is also gratitude for the present in which we all live. That is why we honor our veterans, but we also recognize that in order to keep the freedoms those veterans fought and died for, we have to continue to defend those freedoms not only through people currently serving in our armed forces, but also through being active participants in our local community. We have what we have because someone secured it for us. Years from now, generations not yet born will receive what we defend and present to them. Memorial Day is a time for us to reflect but also acknowledge that we are building the world of tomorrow with our blood, sweat and tears. Today is our time to give honor to those who deserve it. Someday, there will be others who will have a choice as to whether or not to honor us. We take time during this special weekend to not only eat some BBQ and drink an iced tea, but we also are a part of what we will present to the future. That is an awesome but humbling responsibility.
Our time to celebrate those who did so much to give us what we have today is now. But this does not stop with us. There will be future generations made up of our children and grandchildren. Memorial Day is a time that we recognize what was given to us while we reflect upon what we are giving to future generations.
God willing, we will give those future generations as much reason to honor us as our previous generations have given for us to honor them.