What Memorial Day Means: A Story for Younger Readers

Walk through a military cemetery the week before Memorial Day, and you will see small American flags planted in front of every grave. Each flag is the same size. Each one is placed about a foot in front of a white stone. The stones go on for as far as you can see. The flags go on with them.

At Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, soldiers from a special Army unit place every flag. The unit is called The Old Guard. They work all afternoon on a Thursday in late May. They put more than 250,000 flags down in one day. They do this every year. They have done it for more than seventy years.

Then on Monday, the country has Memorial Day.

What Memorial Day is

Memorial Day is a day on the calendar for the soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen who died while serving in the United States military.

These are not all the people who served. There is a different day for that. Veterans Day is in November, and it is for everyone who served. Memorial Day is only for the people who did not come home.

That is the part to know. Memorial Day is for the dead.

Why a country has a day like this

When someone dies in service, their family loses them forever. The country loses them too. The country wanted a day to say so out loud.

The day started after the Civil War, in the 1860s. People in many parts of the country were walking to cemeteries and putting flowers on graves. Some of those people were soldiers themselves. Some of them were families. Some of them were children. The country watched what people were already doing and made it official. It became a holiday.

What the flags mean

The flag in front of each grave is the same flag the country flies on schools and on courthouses. The flag is a way of saying this person was ours. They wore the uniform. They are buried under the flag.

The flag is also a way of saying we remember. The flags do not go in by accident. Real people put them there. They do it on a Thursday so the country can see them on Saturday and Sunday and Monday. When the holiday is over, the flags come back out. The cemetery goes back to looking the way it usually looks.

The flag goes in. The flag comes out. The person stays buried. That is the part the day is for.

What you can do

If you want to do something on Memorial Day, here are some real things to try:

• At 3:00 in the afternoon, wherever you are, stop for one minute. Do not say anything. Just stop. The country made a law in the year 2000 that asks every American to do this. It is called the National Moment of Remembrance.
• If you are near a cemetery where soldiers are buried, walk through it. You do not need to know anyone there. The graves are for being visited.
• Ask your family if anyone you know lost someone in the military. If they say yes, ask the name. Then say the name out loud, just once, on Memorial Day. Names are how we remember people. Saying a name is a thing the country needs done.

What the day is not

Memorial Day weekend is a long weekend. People have cookouts. People go to the beach. None of that is wrong. The country gets a long weekend in late May, and people use it the way people use long weekends.

But the cookouts are not the reason for the day. The day is for the people in the cemeteries. The hamburgers and the swimming pools can happen. The reason the day exists is still the people in the cemeteries.

The flag goes in front of every grave. The flag stays there through the long weekend. On Monday, the country has Memorial Day. That is what it is for.

Sources

• 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard), Arlington National Cemetery — annual “Flags In” operation, public U.S. Army information.
• National Moment of Remembrance Act of 2000, Public Law 106–579.
• General John A. Logan, General Orders No. 11, Grand Army of the Republic, May 5, 1868 — established Decoration Day.
• U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, “Memorial Day History” public reference.