For thousands of combat veterans and their families, Memorial Day is a solemn day of remembrance and honor for fallen comrades in arms. Honoring our fallen military men in such a fashion dates back to the Civil War and has been the subject of debate ever since.

Memorial Day was originally called Decoration Day. The actual origins of the celebration are a matter of much debate among the more than 24 cities claiming the distinction. Disputing all such claims is one study done by Duke University, which identified a hymn, published in 1867 – Kneel Where Our Loves are Sleeping by Nella L. Sweet. Sweet’s song was dedicated, “To the Ladies of the South who are Decorating the Graves of the Confederate Dead.”

Even so, President Johnson in 1966 declared Waterloo N.Y. the official birthplace of Memorial Day. However, that fact remains difficult to prove.

It is much more probable that the celebration had independent beginnings in any number of towns across the U.S. Some historians postulate that the proclamation by General John Logan, National Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic on May 5, 1868 in his General Order No. 11. The first observance of the day was on May 30, 1868. Flowers were placed on the graves of both Union and Confederate soldiers in Arlington National Cemetery.

New York was the first state to recognize the holiday in 1873. Within 17 years, all former Union states honored the day.

The states comprising the Confederacy refused to acknowledge the day until after World War I. After that conflict the day was changed, to honor not only those lost in the Civil War, but fallen U.S. military from all wars involving Americans.

Moina Michael penned this poem, based in part on the poem In Flanders Fields, in 1915:

We cherish too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led,
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies.

Michael followed up her poetic efforts with the idea of wearing red poppies on Memorial Day as a tribute to fallen soldiers. As part of her effort, she sold red poppies to friends and relatives and donated the proceeds to service personnel in need.

Her tradition was so successful, that many countries around the world started their own tradition of wearing red poppies to honor their fallen combatants.

There are those that think that meaning of the day was lost when the National Holiday Act of 1971 made Memorial Day a three-day weekend. The Veterans of Foreign War, in its 2002 Memorial Day address stated, “Changing the date merely to create three-day weekends has undermined the very meaning of the day. No doubt, this has contributed greatly to the general public’s nonchalant observance of Memorial Day.”

Since 1999 both the Senate and the House have introduced legislation to return Memorial Day to it’s traditional May 30 date. None of those efforts has been passed.