Observing Memorial Day underway on deployment eliminates the opportunity of observing it in the manner for which it originated. I shared this prayer on Memorial Day to tell the story of how the holiday came to be as we know it, since we all tend to be better at enjoying the holiday than understanding what we’re commemorating. Because my family and I have lived overseas for much of the last few years, we’ve had the opportunity to show our boys some of the places where America’s sons and daughters are laid to rest all over the world and visit their graves and remember their sacrifices. Let none of us ever fail to do so wherever we are, the cost of freedom is too high to do otherwise.
Never forget the cost of freedom.
In May of 1968, General John A. Logan, the Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic (an association of Civil War veterans), issued a decree that May 30th should be set aside for the commemoration of the 620,000 Soldiers, Marines, and Sailors killed in the Civil War. It reads, in part, as follows:
“The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet church-yard in the land…We should guard their graves with sacred vigilance. All that the consecrated wealth and taste of the nation can add to their adornment and security is but a fitting tribute to the memory of her slain defenders. Let no wanton foot tread rudely on such hallowed grounds. Let pleasant paths invite the coming and going of reverent visitors and fond mourners. Let no vandalism of avarice or neglect, no ravages of time testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic.
If other eyes grow dull, other hands slack, and other hearts cold in the solemn trust, ours shall keep it well as long as the light and warmth of life remain to us.
Let us, then, at the time appointed gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with the choicest flowers of spring-time; let us raise above them the dear old flag they saved from dishonor; let us in this solemn presence renew our pledges to aid and assist those whom they have left among us a sacred charge upon a nation’s gratitude, the soldier’s and sailor’s widow and orphan.”
https://www.usmemorialday.org/general-order-11
For nearly 100 years Decoration Day would be observed as such according to local customs. It wasn’t until 1967 that Decoration Day—by then more commonly called Memorial Day—became a national holiday and moved from its May 30th date to the last Monday in May. The expansion of Memorial Day to include all of America’s war dead, and not just those of the Civil War, began in earnest after World War One, when a new tradition was introduced: the poppy.
Canadian Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae served with the 1st Brigade Canadian Field Artillery as brigade surgeon during the horribly bloody Second Battle of Ypres. After the battle, which was fought in the end of May, McCrae looked out across Flanders fields and saw bright red poppies emerging from the wreckage of the Belgian countryside. It inspired him to write the following poem:
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Let us never break faith with those who gave everything both to preserve our nation and our freedom, and to defend those of others around the world.
LET US PRAY
Lord of the Powers, as we reflect this day on our nation’s illustrious military history and those men and women who have died in the service of our armed forces, help us to remember the cost of freedom, and to properly honor the Sailors, Marines, Soldiers, Airman, and Coastguardsmen, who have laid down their lives in war for the United States of America. For us who now serve, inspire us, O God, by their sacrifice and help us renew our dedication to the cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that freedom may stand firm and available to all people for all time. This we pray in the Name of the God whose Truth will set us free.
AMEN
An Orthodox Priest Abroad 