What Are the Origins of Memorial Day?
The following definition of Decoration Day (aka Memorial Day) appears in Messages and Papers of the Presidents (Bureau of National Literature, 1917). The custom of strewing flowers on the graves of their dead soldiers early in the spring of each year originated among the women of the South before the close of the Civil War. In some parts of the North a similar custom grew up, but its observance was not universal. May 5, 1868, while Gen. John A. Logan was commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, he issued an order fixing the 30th day of May of that year as a day for the general observance of the custom by members of the Grand Army and their friends. Since that time May 30 had been regularly observed as Decoration Day throughout the country. It is known as Confederate Memorial Day in the South. The particular days observed there are April 26th in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Mississippi and May 10th in North Carolina and South Carolina, while Virginia observes May 30th and
