Remember the Reason

As you're enjoying the day off (if you have the day off).  Remember the reason for the holiday in the first place.

Memorial Day was officially established in 1868, although at the time, it was known as Decoration Day.  It is an ancient tradition to decorate soldiers graves with flowers.  The practice was officially documented for Confederate soldiers during the Civil War.   After the War, it was adopted nationally and was celebrated on May 30th of 1868 because there were no battles on that date.  In 1882, the name was officially changed to Memorial Day.  In 1968, it was moved to it's current day of the last Monday of May.

I found this gravestone near Brimley, Michigan while I was at another place near there (pictures of that are forthcoming).  There was a graveyard and I saw this stone and figured it would make a good picture.  I looked at the date and thought maybe he had died during World War I, but it turns out that he died from the influenza outbreak after the War.

As I looked around the rest of that graveyard, I found an odd tradition there but I didn't take pictures of it.  Maybe I will visit there again and take pictures.