I have read and heard several expressions
of “celebrating” Memorial Day this year, but as the purpose of the holiday is to
remember American servicemen who died in war, it is a day to mourn, not to
celebrate. The only positive emotion the
holiday should evoke is gratitude.
A more accurate word choice is commemorating the holiday.
I have in the past observed people
wishing others to enjoy Memorial Day as a “happy holiday” and other references
to it as day of mirth, which suggested that people have lost the meaning of
this solemn day. See my post from May of
2009, Memorial Day Is Not Meant to Be a Happy Holiday,
http://williamcinfici.blogspot.com/2009/05/memorial-day-not-meant-to-be-happy.html. References to the “celebration” of Memorial
Day confirm this loss, although the distinction between celebration and commemoration
has increasingly been lost more generally, which, in turn, is reflected in how
people act in such circumstances.
The
celebration of this federal and state holiday always on a Monday in late Spring
necessarily makes it a three-day weekend and encourages the popular perception
of it as the “unofficial” start of Summer and thus the observation of it with
general merriment. Perhaps it has become
time to consider moving Memorial Day to an earlier, fixed date on the calendar
that would encourage more appropriate solemnity and substituting in between
that date and Independence Day another holiday, such as Flag Day, to celebrate
as a more festive late Spring holiday.
Let us
pause this holiday to remember our war dead and be grateful for the liberty we enjoy
as a result of their sacrifice.
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