Did you know? Each year on Remembrance Day, a national moment of remembrance is held at 3 p.m. local time. In 1971, Congress declared Memorial Day a national holiday and set it on the last Monday in May. According to the VA, the day was extended to honor all those who died in U.S. wars. We hope you have a great holiday and remember the reason at the same time. As a reminder, ASOM is open on Memorial Day, May 30 – so be sure to check out the “D-Day: Freedom From Above” exhibit! Two other days celebrate those who have served or serve in the U.S. military: Armed Services Day (formerly in May), an unofficial holiday in the United States honoring those currently serving in the armed forces, and Veterans Day (Nov. 11), which honors those who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces. [9] The Uniform Holidays Bill of 1968 moved the holiday to the last Monday in May.
Originally, Veterans Day was also included in the government`s list of holidays, which should always fall on a Monday, but it was moved to its original day of November 11 in 1978. A year after the war ended, in April 1866, four of Christopher Columbus` wives gathered at the Friendship Cemetery to decorate the graves of Confederate soldiers. They also felt compelled to honor the Union soldiers buried there and honor the grief of their families by decorating their graves as well. The story of their gesture of humanity and reconciliation is considered by some authors to be the inspiration for the original day of commemoration, although it took place last among the claimed inspirations. [33] [34] [35] [36] Architect Henry Bacon worked closely with French sculptor Daniel Chester to design the Lincoln Memorial, inspired by the ancient Greek Parthenon still standing in Athens. Construction was carried out by the George A. Fuller Company. At ninety-nine feet high and two hundred feet wide, and with sixty-foot interior ceilings, the structure is indeed monumental. A long staircase of 58 steps leads from the square to its entrance on the east façade. Thirty-six outer Doric columns symbolize the thirty-six states of the Union at the time of Lincoln`s death, with the name of each state included in the frieze above the columns. On the frieze of the upper attic, all states are included at the time of the inauguration of the monument. Inside, the monument is divided into three chambers separated by columns, with the dramatic nineteen-foot Frenchman sculpture of a seated President Lincoln occupying the center.
The north and south side chambers contain carved inscriptions from Lincoln`s Second Inaugural Address and His Gettysburg Address, as well as murals depicting the principles of government. The skillful sculpture of the massive portrait sculpture of Frenchmen was made by the Piccirilli brothers of New York and took four years. Ernst C. Bairstow and Evelyn Beatrice Longman provided architectural sculptures, including inscriptions, while Jules Guerin designed and painted the murals. Memorial Day remains a holiday that most businesses observe because it marks the unofficial start of summer. The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW) have advocated a return to the original date. VFW stated in 2002[73]: Cities and towns across the United States hold annual Memorial Day parades, often attended by military personnel and members of veterans` organizations. Some of the biggest parades take place in Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C. While the Lincoln Memorial celebrates Lincoln`s life as well as the preservation of the Union, events held on its steps over time have also expanded its importance. Marian Anderson`s concert on Easter Sunday in 1939, for example, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.`s “I Have a Dream” speech at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom reinforce his fascinating legacy as a place of civil rights and racial equality. In October 1943, a group of more than four hundred rabbis marched from Union Station to the Capitol, Lincoln Memorial and the White House to draw attention to the Nazi regime`s massacre of European Jews.
In October 1967, more than 100,000 Vietnam War protesters gathered near the Lincoln Memorial on the day they were supposed to “float the Pentagon.” On June 19, 1970, the Black Panther Party held a rally at the Memorial to promote its Revolutionary People`s Constitutional Convention later that year. Such examples underscore the iconic role of the Lincoln Memorial as a setting that reinforces the historical resonance of events. The holiday always falls on the last Monday in May and is a day of remembrance for those who died in service to the United States. Traditionally, citizens are encouraged to pause for a moment of silent reflection at 3 p.m. that day. In July 1862, women in Savannah, Georgia, decorated the graves in Laurel Grove Cemetery of Colonel Francis S. Bartow and his comrades who had fought and died at the Battle of Manassas the previous year. [21] On May 30, 1922, the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. was officially opened. Created in memory of President Abraham Lincoln, who served during the arduous years of the American Civil War, only to be assassinated shortly before the end of the war, the structure assumed a larger-than-life role as a symbolic platform to showcase the nation`s hopes and aspirations in the context of national unity.
Its prominent location as the visual anchor of West Potomac Park, aligned directly with the Washington Monument and the U.S. Capitol nearly three miles away, helped cement the vast open space of the National Mall as the preeminent venue for civic gatherings, national commemoration, and peaceful protests in the century since its opening.