Happy Memorial Day on Monday!
This is a different kind of eHarbor Blog entry. To help celebrate this holiday, I’d like to share some interesting facts about Memorial Day, its origins and what it celebrates. Enjoy!
- Memorial Day was first called Decoration Day.
- The first Memorial Day celebration is believed to have occurred in Waterloo, N.Y. on May 5, 1866. Every business was closed and flags were lowered to half-mast that day to honor the Union soldiers who died in the Civil War.
- May 30 was designated the official date of Memorial Day for many years because no Civil War battle was fought that day. Organizers wanted to honor soldiers who fought in all battles.
- Many Southern states, including Tennessee, the Carolinas and Virginia, celebrate Confederate Memorial Day in addition to Memorial Day.
- Memorial Day didn’t become an official federal holiday until 1971. The celebration date was changed from May 30 to the last Monday of May.
- Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start of the summer movie season, although that has changed in the past several years.
We’ll return to ecommerce topics soon. Have a great three-day weekend! The photo of the U.S. flags is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of Bart Fields.
