Memorial Day

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Memorial Day is a US holiday to remember those that died while serving in the US military, particularly those that died in combat. Memorial Day is observed on the 3rd Monday in May, but was held on the 30 May for decades before that. Currently, it is also seen as the unofficial start of summer in the US.

History

What we know know as Memorial Day, was started as Decoration Day shortly after the end of the Civil War in 1865. Many US cities and towns began holding tributes to the men (and a few women I believe), who died in the war. They also decorated the graves with flowers, and the religious usually said prayers, also.

 Decoration Day

On 5 May 1868, Gen. John Logan, requested a national day remembrance on 30 May 1868. Why the 30th of May? Because it isn't the anniversary of any particular Civil War battle. The Decoration Day he sought was a day

"designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land"

 Gen. Logan got his request and the 30th of May 1868 was the first national "memorial" day. (It was still referred to as Decoration Day.) On that Decoration Day, 5,000 people gathered at Arlington National Cemetery to decorate the graves of the 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers killed during the war buried there.

After that first day of remembrance, many northern states held commemorative events similar to the 1868 event at Arlington. By 1890, each of the northern states (at that time) had made Decoration Day an official state holiday. The southern states remembered their dead in other ways until after WWI.

In 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. This act established 4 national holidays to be always observed on a Monday in order to provide a 3 day weekend for Federal Employees. Memorial Day is one of those 4 holidays, the other 3 being Washington's Birthday (aka President's Day), Columbus Day, and Veterans Day. The bill went into effect 1 Jan 1971, making 31 May 1971 the first Memorial Day to be observed as a national holiday. (It was designated as the last Monday in May at that point.)

Sources

• History.com's page on Memorial Day
• 1971 calendar

• Pres. Lyndon Johnson on the Uniform Monday Holiday Act
• usmemorialday.org - includes the story about the red poppies
• Fast Facts - including casualty numbers

St. Patrick's Day

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Of course, to understand St. Patrick's Day, we first have to know something about the man  the holiday is named for.

Saint Patrick

St. Patrick
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There are many stories about things Patrick supposedly did during his life. Most of which are nothing more then stories. The most famous example of one of these stories is probably that story that he drove all the snakes out of Ireland. (The snakes weren't there for him to banish.) Besides the stories (you can call them folk tales if you like), there's not much we know about his life.

What we do know is that he was born to wealthy parents in Britain, not Ireland, most likely near the end of the 4th century CE (AD to us older folks.) Even though his father was a Christian deacon, there is no evidence that he came from a deeply religious family.

When Irish raiders attacked his family's estate when Patrick was 16, he was taken prisoner and brought to Ireland and was in captivity for the next 6 years. While he was in captivity, he was put to work as a shepheard away from people. This is when he really turned to religion and became a devout Christian.

After the 6 years of captivity, he escaped and made his way back to Britain. After getting back, he began 15 years of religious training. At the end of the training, he was made an ordained priest, and sent back to Ireland with 2 missions. 1 to cater to the Christians that were already there, and the second to convert as many non-Christian Irish to Christianity as he could. Since he was already familiar with the language and culture, he chose to incorporate those native traditions into Irish Christianity. (He wasn't the first to incorporate "pagan" beliefs into Christianity to convert people.)

His death is believed to be 17 March 461 CE

History

The St. Patrick feast day has been celebrated in Ireland since about the 9th or 10th century. However, the first St. Patrick Day parade took place 17 March 1762 in New York City. It was organized by Irish soldiers serving in the British military to reconnect with their Irish roots and to connect with fellow Irish soldiers. The holiday and parades grew from there.

After the Great Potato Famine in 1845, almost 1 million poor, uneducated Irish immigrated to the US in an attempt to escape starvation. Despised for having unfamiliar accents and different religious beliefs, they had trouble finding jobs, and were portrayed in political cartoons as drunk, violent monkeys.

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Traditions

There are several traditions surrounding St. Patrick's Day. Some that cross borders, and others that are particular to a city.

Parades have already been touched on, and is one tradition that crosses borders. Multiple cities in the US have St. Patrick's Day parades. A parade is even part of Dublin's St. Patrick's Festival. At least in my part of the US, wearing green on St. Patrick's Day and pinching people who don't wear green that day is a tradition. Others include drinking Guinness (an Irish beer) and eating corned beef and cabbage.

Perhaps the most famous city specific tradition is Chicago's tradition of  dyeing the Chicago River green

Some of the symbols on the day are Shamrocks, leprechauns.

Some of the places where the holiday is celebrated

Sources

• History.com - St. Patrick, history

• More information on traditions can be found here
• St. Patrick's day in Old Ireland

Valentine's Day

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Today is Valentine's Day. Since anybody reading this likely already knows the day's traditions, I'll focus on the history of the holiday.

From what I can find, the exact origins of Valentine's Day are lost to history. However, it likely comes from the ancient Roman feast of Lupercalia in February. Lupercal began with a sacrifice of male goat(s) and a dog along with spreading the blood from the sacrifice onto 2 nude Luperci. (Male goats were symbols of sexuality.) Then, the actual feast. After the feast, the Luperci cut strips from the hide of the sacrificed goat, ran around nude (or nearly nude), whipping women with the strips. At some point, men drew the names of local women to find out who they'd be coupled to for the duration of the festival, sometimes longer. Over time, Lupercalia's nudity was replaced with everybody being fully clothed.

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In the 3rd century CE (AD to us older folks), there's a tradition stating that Emperor Claudius II executed a man named Valentine on 14 February after Valentine tried to get Claudius to convert to Christianity. There's another legend stating that Claudius had 2 men named Valentine executed on the 14 February, but in different years. Despite the lack of records confirming the legend, Valentine was made a saint by the Catholic church. I couldn't find a date in my quick search though. However, Pope Gelasius outlawed Lupercalia and declared 14 February Valentine's Day in the 5th century CE.

Valentine's Day was romanticized by both Chaucer and Shakespeare in their writings. During the middle ages, the tradition of handmade cards became popular. During the Industrial Revolution, factory made cards were first created and gained popularity.

My Sources

• History.com - Lupercalia and Valentine's Day
• NPR piece by Arnie Seipel

To finish this off, here's a map with the countries that celebrate Valentine's Day in pink.

Martin Luther King, Jr Day

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Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The day we celebrate the man who fought to end segregation and racism in general. The quote on The King Center's page from his wife that I feel best represents what he fought for and, thus, represents who and what we celebrate today is, "We commemorate Dr. King's inspiring words, because his and his vision filled a great void in our nation, and answered our cellective longing to become a country that truly lived by its noblest principles." MLK (Martin Luther King, Jr.) not only spoke up for his vision of a county without racism, he also put his life on the line in his fight. He faced threats, jail, and beatings as results of his advocacy. While he didn't achieve his dream, his actions did result in some long overdue changes towards racial equality.

Now I won't go into great detail about MLK's life, both personal and as what many today would call a Social Justice Warrior, I will give some information here and provide links for anybody that wants to know more about the man and his mission.

I (mage source   quote's validity source

A Brief History on the Holiday Itself

• Martin Luther King, Jr Day is celebrated on the 3rd monday in January.
• The first legislation introduced to create the holiday was brought forth on 8 April 1968, 4 days after his assassination, by Congressman John Conyers (D-MI).
• The day wasn't an official holiday anywhere in the US until Illinois made it a state holiday in 1973, followed by Massachusetts and Connecticut the following year.
• His wife (Coretta Scott King) testified in front of both the Senate Judiciary Committee and Joint Hearings of Congress in favor of creating the federal holiday we have today in 1979, but the Conyers King Holiday bill was defeated in a floor vote in the House that November. (Note, it was defeated by only 5 votes.)
• Mrs. King again testified for the holiday in 1982, but before the House Committee on Post Office and Civil Services's Subcommittee on Census and Population.
• She again testified before Congress in favor of the King Holiday Bill in June of 1983.
• The bill was signed by President Reagan in November of 1983, creating the federal holiday we currently have.

With his family. Source

A Brief History on Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther was born in 1929 as Michael Luther King, jr, but later changed his name to Martin. He attended segregated schools as a child and got his B.A. in sociology from Morehouse College in 1948. He then went on to receive his B.D. degree from Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania. He followed that with going to Boston University for his graduate studies. He finished his graduate studies in 1953, and was awarded the degree in 1955. Boston is also where he met and married his wife Coretta Scott. The couple had 3 children.

MLK was on the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) by 1954. He accepted the role of leader in the 382 day Montgomery Bus Boycott in December of 1955, which resulted in the US Supreme Court ruling segregation on busses unconstitutional. Between 1957 and his death in 1968, King traveled the country and spoke where there was injustice, protest, and action, as well as leading many protests himself and writing 5 books.

King was the youngest man to win the Nobel Peace Prize when he was told he was to be the winner at 35. In 1968, at 39, he was assassinated in Memphis, TN.

• read any of the books on his biography page at nobelprize.org (link in the sources)
• his biography at The King Center's website
• his biography at history.com
• his entry at britannica.com
• you can also read his autobiography which is available at both Amazon and Google books. You can also find it in a library with worldcat

SOURCES

• The King Center 1 - 2 - 3
• NobelPrize.org
• Morehouse College website