Park Forest, IL—(ENEWSPF)—May 24, 2018
By: Rosemary Piser
The Village of Park Forest will honor its veterans during the annual Memorial Day Ceremony on Monday, May 28 at 11 a.m., on the Village Green in DownTown Park Forest.
In addition, the Park Forest Veterans Commission’s Veterans Closet & Resource Center, 351 Founders way, will be open to visitors on Monday from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
A bit about the day from History.com:
Memorial Day is an American holiday, observed on the last Monday of May, honoring the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. Memorial Day 2018 occurs on Monday, May 28. Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971. Many Americans observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries or memorials, holding family gatherings and participating in parades.
Unofficially, it marks the beginning of the summer season.
The Civil War, which ended in the spring of 1865, claimed more lives than any conflict in U.S. history and required the establishment of the country’s first national cemeteries.
By the late 1860s, Americans in various towns and cities had begun holding springtime tributes to these countless fallen soldiers, decorating their graves with flowers and reciting prayers.
It is unclear where exactly this tradition originated; numerous different communities may have independently initiated the memorial gatherings. Nevertheless, in 1966 the federal government declared Waterloo, New York, the official birthplace of Memorial Day.
Waterloo—which first celebrated the day on May 5, 1866—was chosen because it hosted an annual, community-wide event, during which businesses closed and residents decorated the graves of soldiers with flowers and flags.
Source: www.villageofparkforest.com