In Windham and most other towns, the phone calls to town hall start early in April, sometimes before the snow is gone. “When are the cemeteries going to be ready?”, people want to know. For the most part, these early calls come from funeral homes, and are about scheduling spring burials and the graveside services which accompany them.
It isn’t long after, according to Dave Dixon, Windham’s Man-in-Charge of Cemeteries, that residents begin to think about Memorial Day and the annual tradition of tidying up graves and decorating them with flowers and wreaths. Dixon’s crew gets out into the many cemeteries of Windham, just as soon as weather permits to clip grass, remove old debris, mow grass and even straighten up some of the stones which may have fallen under the weight of winter snow.
There have been many days this spring when such work has been held up because of the weather and Dixon fields many calls from anxious citizens and folks who live far away, trying to plan their annual trip to a local cemetery.
The tradition of decorating the graves on Memorial Day has evolved from a day set aside to honor the soldiers who died in the Civil War, to a day which memorializes all those who have passed away. Still, it is the hundreds of flags which take root in the graveyards, which remind us of the origin of the special day.
From 1865 to 1868, residents and veterans in Waterloo, New York (and other places) had been going to the local cemeteries and placing wreaths, black streamers and bouquets on the graves of the Civil War soldiers. As with other traditions, each year more and more people became involved and eventually included groups of veterans marching to the cemetery where speeches were given.
Based on citizens’ urging, on May 5, 1868, General John A. Logan, first commander of the Grand Army of the Republic (a veterans group organized after the Civil War) issued General Order No. 11: “The 30th day 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…no form or ceremony is prescribed, but posts (GAR) and comrades will in their own way arrange …services…as circumstances permit.”
Five thousand people helped decorate more than 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers’ graves in Arlington National Cemetery in 1868.
Observances continued to be held annually, for the several decades following the Civil War. After World War I, the commemoration began to include those who had died in all American wars, and so it has continued through many more wars.
Congress declared Memorial Day a national holiday in 1971, to be celebrated on the last Monday in May. Many people protested this change of the traditional date, but today it is still the last Monday in May.
Each Memorial Day, a flag is placed on each grave at Arlington National Cemetery, and the President or Vice President places a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown.
On the gloomy, wet days before this Memorial Day, local veterans visit the grave of every fallen comrade, in nearly every one of the more than two dozen cemeteries in Windham, reverently placing a flag by the gravestone. From the Revolutionary War to the conflicts of this century, every veteran is remembered on Memorial Day. Each year, the number of flags needed increases. Last year, more than 750 flags were ordered.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
