Memorial Day 2025
Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is one of the federal holidays in the United States for honoring and mourning the U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. It is observed on the last Monday of May. Memorial Day is also considered the unofficial beginning of summer in the United States.
It is a day for visiting cemeteries and memorials to mourn the military personnel who died in the line of duty. Volunteers will place American flags on the graves of those military personnel in national cemeteries. Others such as family and friends will also come to lay flowers and grieve on the graves of those who died in the US military.
The first national observance of Memorial Day occurred on May 30, 1868. Then known as Decoration Day and observed on May 30, the holiday was proclaimed by Commander in Chief John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic to honor the Union soldiers who had died in the American Civil War. This national observance followed many local observances which were inaugurated between the end of the Civil War and Logan's declaration. Many cities and people have claimed to be the first to observe it. However, the National Cemetery Administration, a division of the Department of Veterans Affairs, credits Mary Ann Williams with originating the "idea of strewing the graves of Civil War soldiers—Union and Confederate" with flowers.
Official recognition as a holiday spread among the states, beginning with New York in 1873. By 1890, every Union state had adopted it. The world wars turned it into a day of remembrance for all members of the U.S. military who fought and died in service. In 1968, Congress changed its observance to the last Monday in May, and in 1971 standardized its name as "Memorial Day".
Two other days celebrate those who have served or are serving in the U.S. military: Armed Forces Day, which is earlier in May, an unofficial U.S. holiday for honoring those currently serving in the armed forces, and Veterans Day on November 11, which honors all those who have served in the United States Armed Forces. Read More…
Labor Day
The History of Daylight Saving Time
(This is a Repost from October, 2020)
How Does Daylight Saving Time Work?
Johnna Kaplan
Although we dutifully adjust our lives for it twice a year, the whole “Spring forward, fall back” phenomenon can be puzzling. For many people, when the time change approaches in spring or fall, it brings with it at least a moment of confusion: How does daylight saving time work, again? What day do we do this, and what time exactly do we change our clocks? Are we gaining an hour, or losing one? If that hour is truly lost, where does it go? And is it Daylight Saving or Daylight Savings Time?
That last one’s easy. Strange as it sounds if you usually say the “s,” the proper name is Daylight Saving Time. As for the rest of it, here are the facts you need to know about springing forward and falling back.
Why Does Daylight Saving Time Exist?
The first person known to have suggested a seasonal adjustment of time was none other than Benjamin Franklin. In 1784, he noted that sleeping in despite the sun’s rising earlier in the summer was a waste of good daylight. He suggested, humorously, not a nationwide changing of clocks but rather a volley of early morning cannon fire to rouse people from their beds. Several other innovators around the world had similar ideas over the next century. Some proposed more serious plans to do something about it, but ultimately these were seen as impractical and unwelcome.
The urgent need to conserve fuel during World War I finally made 31 nations implement a version of Daylight Saving Time or DST. After the war was over, most of them returned to “normal,” but soon enough World War II began. Then, 52 countries adopted the energy-saving schedule adjustment. Some changed their clocks for the whole year, including the United States. The U.S. remained on what was then called “wartime” from 1942 to 1945. (Daylight Saving Time would be extended again during the oil crisis of the 1970s.) After the war, when mandatory nationwide “wartime” ended, clock-related matters were left to state and local governments to regulate (or not) as they chose.
The federal government didn’t attempt to standardize the process again until 1966. It enacted the Uniform Time Act and established dates and times for those areas choosing to change their clocks. Further adjustments were made in 1986 and 2007. Today most people in the U.S. change their clocks at the agreed-upon time and date twice a year.
