“No words are adequate to console those who have lost a loved one serving our nation. We can only offer our prayers and join in their grief. We grieve for the mother who hears the sound of her child’s 21-gun salute. We grieve for the husband or wife who receives a folded flag. We grieve for a young son or daughter who only knows Dad from a photograph.”  President George W. Bush

What are your plans for celebrating Memorial Day 2008?

We will use these stones to build a memorial. In the future, your children will ask,”What do these stones mean to you?”  (Joshua 4:1; NLT)

The calendar has sure been playing tricks on us this year.  First, the earliest Easter any of us will ever see for the rest of our lives, and now Memorial Day seems to be happening a week early.

In case you’re wondering, Easter is always the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox (March 20).  According to www.snopes.com, “Easter moves around from year to year in order to preserve its relationship to the astronomical phenomena (i.e., the season of the year and the phase of the moon) that would have occurred at the time of the resurrection (traditionally reckoned as having taken place in 30 A.D.)….  The earliest calendar date on which Easter can fall is March 22, and the latest date is April 25.  The 2008 occurrence was March 23.  The last time Easter fell on so early a date was 1913, and the next time it will do so will be in the year 2160.”

The traditional date for Memorial Day is May 30 (next Friday), but because Congress made the day into a three-day weekend with the National Holiday Act of 1971, it is now observed on the last Monday of May (today).  So I hope you got your hot dogs and hamburgers all ready to go a little early this year for the traditional start of the summer season.

Here are a few tidbits of trivia from the official www.usmemorialday.org site:
–Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation’s service.
–Memorial Day is not about division. It is about reconciliation; it is about coming together to honor those who gave their all.
–Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic.
–The first state to officially recognize the holiday was New York in 1873.  While Waterloo N.Y. was officially declared the birthplace of Memorial Day by President Lyndon Johnson in May 1966, it’s difficult to prove conclusively the origins of the day.
–In 1915, Moina Michael conceived of an idea to wear red poppies on Memorial day in honor of those who died serving the nation during war. She was the first to wear one, and sold poppies to her friends and co-workers with the money going to benefit servicemen in need.  Shortly before Memorial Day in 1922 the VFW became the first veterans’ organization to nationally sell poppies.
–Memorial Day used to be a solemn day of mourning, a sacred day of remembrance to honor those who paid the ultimate price for our freedoms. Businesses closed for the day. Towns held parades honoring the fallen, the parade routes often times ending at a local cemetery, where Memorial Day speeches were given and prayers offered up. People took the time that day to clean and decorate with flowers and flags the graves of those the fell in service to their country.
–Traditional observance of Memorial day has diminished over the years. Many Americans nowadays have forgotten the meaning and traditions of Memorial Day. At many cemeteries, the graves of the fallen are increasingly ignored, neglected. Most people no longer remember the proper flag etiquette for the day. While there are towns and cities that still hold Memorial Day parades, many have not held a parade in decades. Some people think the day is for honoring any and all dead, and not just those fallen in service to our country.

Now, as so accurately reported by Wikipedia, Memorial Day is used as a time for picnics, barbecues, family gatherings, and sporting events. One of the longest standing traditions is the running of the Indianapolis 500, which has been held in conjunction with Memorial Day since 1911. Some Americans also view Memorial Day as the unofficial beginning of Summer and Labor Day as the unofficial end of the season.

Prayer Power
Lord, may we remember those who died in the service of our country to preserve our freedoms.  Let us not be so caught up in our holiday activities or political activism that fail to honor those who “gave their all.”

Link of the Day
Memorial Day Song

Blessings on you as you honor President Bush’s request to pay tribute to veterans by pausing on Memorial Day for “a moment of remembrance,” at 3 p.m. local time.