Memorial Day, formerly known as Decoration Day,

Memorial Day, formerly known as Decoration Day, is celebrated on the last Monday in May honoring those who have died in the nation’s wars. It originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971.

Some records show that one of the earliest Memorial Day commemorations was organized by a group of freed slaves in Charleston, South Carolina less than a month after the Confederacy surrendered in 1865. During the final years of the war, Confederates converted the city’s Washington Racecourse and Jockey Club into an outdoor prison, and at least 250 Union soldiers succumbed to exposure and disease and were buried in a mass grave behind the track’s grandstand. A small group of black workmen re-buried and built a whitewashed fence around the new cemetery, naming it “Martyrs of the Racecourse.”

By the late 1860s, Americans in various towns and cities begun holding springtime tributes to these countless fallen soldiers, decorating their graves with flowers and reciting prayers.

In spite of the various accounts of where Memorial Day originated, in 1966, Congress and President Lyndon Johnson declared Waterloo, New York, the "birthplace" of Memorial Day. It was not until after World War I, however, that the day was expanded to honor those who have died in all American wars.

One of the most well-known ceremonies happens at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Arlington National Cemetery’s most iconic memorial. Since 1921, it has provided a final resting place for one of America’s unidentified World War I service members, and Unknowns from later wars were added in 1958 and 1984. Each year on Memorial Day, about 5,000 people gather at Arlington National Cemetery where the president or the vice president of the United States places a wreath to commemorate the occasion. Members of the Army’s Third US Infantry (“The Old Guard”) place miniature American flags in front of more than 260,000 gravestones at the national cemetery.

To ensure the sacrifices of America’s fallen heroes are never forgotten, in December 2000, the U.S. Congress passed The National Moment of Remembrance encouraging all Americans to pause wherever they are at 3 p.m. local time on Memorial Day for a minute of silence to remember and honor those who have died in service to the nation.

As the unofficial beginning to summer, Memorial Day is still celebrated much as it was at its inception 150 years ago. Communities across the nation come together to remember by holding ceremonies, decorating graves, attending parades, giving speeches and enjoying food and one another. Let us not forget the origins of this national holiday, as Moment of Remembrance founder Carmella LaSpada states: "It's a way we can all help put the memorial back in Memorial Day."