The last Monday in May, in 2025 that's May 26th, is Memorial Day in the United States—a holiday honoring the men and women who died during military conflict in service to the United States. Formerly known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War but didn't become an official federal holiday until 1971.
The Civil War claimed more lives than any conflict in U.S. history. This required the establishment of the country's first national cemeteries. In the late 1860s, Americans in various small towns and large cities held springtime tributes to fallen soldiers by decorating their graves with flowers. On May 5, 1868, General John A. Logan proclaimed May 30 as Decoration Day, the date chosen because it was not the anniversary of any particular battle.
On the first Decoration Day,
General Logan made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery (Washington, D.C.)
where 5,000 participants decorated the graves of 20,000 Union and Confederate
soldiers buried there.
Decoration Day originally honored only those lost while fighting in the Civil War on both sides of the conflict. But by the time the U.S. became involved in World War I, the holiday evolved to commemorate American military personnel who died in all wars.
The name Decoration Day gradually changed over to Memorial Day during the ensuing years, but continued to be observed on May 30. In 1968, one hundred years after General Logan made his Decoration Day proclamation, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act which established Memorial Day as the last Monday in May in order to create a three-day weekend for federal employees. This law also declared Memorial Day to be a federal holiday. The change went into effect in 1971.
In addition to nationwide parades and the decorating of graves and monuments with flags and flowers, Memorial Day has come to hold a second distinction. It is also a time of many family gatherings which include backyard BBQs and picnics. With an official date of the last Monday in May, the holiday is considered the unofficial start of summer and the beginning of the vacation travel season in the U.S. with the Labor Day holiday on the first Monday of September signaling the unofficial end of the summer season. Many recreational boaters launch their boats on lakes and rivers over the Memorial Day weekend for the first outing of the summer. Tourist attractions gear up for the summer vacationers.
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