Memorial Day
by Sarah Dart
A Memorial Day message for the kids.
Tomorrow is Memorial Day. It is often considered the “unofficial start to summer.” Typically, people celebrate with cookouts and other types of festivities, and children are excited about school being out and summer vacation finally here. Lots of city pools, typically, open on Memorial Day weekend too. But this Memorial Day is anything but typical! The pandemic has altered this holiday and the way many Americans will celebrate. I mean, kids are barely excited that school’s out because they haven’t even been in school since March. And who knows about city pools and when they can open?? Perhaps this year, we can become more focused to remember what Memorial Day is really about.
Memorial Day is a patriotic, federal holiday established to remember and honor all of the soldiers who died fighting in war. It started out as Decoration Day when they decorated the graves of the soldiers that died fighting in the Civil War. Since there have been other wars since the Civil War, soldiers from all of our nation’s wars are remembered as well.
To honor the soldiers, some people and patriotic groups decorate the graves of those soldiers with flags and/or flowers. Many communities have services or parades. Our Legion Post and Auxiliary have a glorious display of flags on the east edge of town in front of the cemetery. Usually there is a program to honor our fallen veterans at this place, but unfortunately that will not take place this year. And maybe some of you have been to the cemetery to place flowers on graves of your loved ones that have passed.
At 3 p.m. local time on Memorial Day, we should all pause to remember and honor the fallen soldiers. To do that, it actually became a law in December 2000. So, it is a serious day in which we remember the sacrifice that so many soldiers made for the United States. I hope you will find time to remember all of those soldiers who died in service to our country. That is an important thing to remember. And as we take the time to remember all those soldiers, we can also take time to remember the sacrifice God made for each one of us. In the Bible we read, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” God sacrificed His Son, Jesus; and Jesus sacrificed His life so that we could go to Heaven. That is a very precious thing to remember.
Thank you, God!
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