A Memorial

Greetings:

Jousha 4:7c (KJV): "these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever."

Today we celebrate Memoria Day. Consider a little history of this day. The following is from Wikipedia.

"Memorial Day is a United States Federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May (on May 25 in 2009). Formerly known as Decoration Day, it commemorates U.S. men and women who died while in military service to their country. First enacted to honor Union soldiers of the American Civil War (it is celebrated near the day of reunification after the civil war), it was expanded after World War I to include
American casualties of any war or military action.

According to Professor David Blight of the Yale University History Department, the first memorial day was observed in 1865 by liberated slaves at the historic race track in Charleston. The site was a former Confederate prison camp as well as a mass grave for Union soldiers who died in captivity. The freed slaves reinterred the dead Union soldiers from the mass grave to individual graves, fenced in the graveyard and built an entry arch declaring it a Union graveyard. This was a daring action for them to take in the South shortly after the North's victory. On May 30, 1868, the freed slaves returned to the graveyard with flowers they had picked from the countryside and decorated the individual gravesites, thereby creating the first Decoration Day.
A parade by thousands of freed blacks and Union soldiers from the area was
followed by patriotic singing and a picnic.

The official birthplace of Memorial Day is Waterloo, New York. The village was credited with being the place of origin because it observed the day on May 5, 1866, and each year thereafter.

[There has been a lot of contention over the origin of this holiday.]

On May 26, 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a Presidential Proclamation recognizing Waterloo as the Birthplace of Memorial Day."

No matter where it baegan, today spend some time remembering those who gave their lives so that we might be free.

For Kingdom Education,
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