Sunday, May 25, 1997

Memorial Day's truest meaning

This three-day Memorial Day weekend marks the official beginning of summer vacation, and traditionally, we celebrate this seasonal juncture with great eagerness.

It brings to an end what seemed to be an interminable school year. It divides graduation month from weddings month. It means swimming pools are open. It's time for the Bermuda shorts and charcoal on the barbecue pit.

But hurrying to relax, we sometimes overlook the true meaning of Memorial Day. It is intended to be set aside as a tribute to the thousands of men and women who have died in time of war while defending the freedom of these United States.

Originally, the holiday was called Decoration Day, established to honor America's Civil War dead on May 30, 1868, at the urging of the Grand Army of the Republic "for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades."

In that war, an America much smaller than today's lost 618,000 dead in four years. Since then, many more have fallen in many more wars. And over the decades, as the day of observance has been moved to accommodate our wish for a three-day weekend, the memorial has been expanded to honor the American dead of all those wars, from Bunker Hill to Kuwait City.

We are grateful, this weekend, that the nation is at peace with its world neighbors and generally has been for several years now, without facing any foreseeable danger of a major war. Thus, Memorial Day and the long, lazy weekend are by all means fit for enjoyment.

But we might pause during our fun to reflect on the lost lives of those who made it possible for us to live this comfortably in America - on the long line of war dead stretching back to the very beginning of our nation - and to recall with respectful memory that this is a holiday with a most solemn tradition.