Talk:Memorial Day

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On 26 May 2008, Memorial Day was linked from Fark, a high-traffic website.

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Contents

Decoration Day and Memorial Day

In Alabama, where my wifes family lives, the observer decoration day on the first Sunday in May.

In Alabama Decoration Day is not always on Memorial Day weekend, it varies from cemetary to cemetary and region to region.

SMS

== Question == HI

Question: On Memorial Day, do shops, enterprises etc. work? Because, here in Greece, on National Holidays, the only things that work are cafeterias and restaurants, as well as the TV and radio stations.memorial day is kinda stupid because i dont know....

Many businesses and nearly all schools are open on the New Year observing Memorial Day (if the schools haven't let out for the summer already) so most families have a three-day weekend all together. It is seen as the traditional beginning of summer. Many families travel to see relatives, to the beach, the lake, or some other fun destination. Usually those that don't travel will mark the day in some way. As a result, businesses that cater to travellers and those on holiday will be open. Factories, banks, the postal services, corporate offices, many government services such as libraries and water departments, car repair shops, even restaurants that mainly serve lunch to business people will all be closed. I hope that answers your question. -Acjelen 15:44, 30 May 2005 (UTC)
Observances of the holiday require Federal and most State governmental agencies to close (except fire, police, etc.) whereas businesses are free to either close or, as in most cases, pay overtime (1.5x) pay to those who work. As a former military officer, I appreciate the observance of a holiday dedicated to those who made the ultimate sacrifice so that others could enjoy a better life. - [Russian55, 26 May 2008]


Should this be memorial day (United States)? 24.94.179.179 15:23, 21 May 2004 (UTC)

I don't think so; unless there are holidays named Memorial Day in other countries. Mattlary 13:26, May 5, 2005 (UTC)
Why should it matter if there is another holiday like it anywhere else? If other countries do not honor the sacrifice of their servicemen in time of war, they are ungrateful to those who gave the greatest measure. [Russian55, 26 May 2008]

I think that Memorial Day is specifically a US holiday. In France and in UK, we honor those who died in time of war on November 11, the date of the armistice of the 1st World War, and called Remembrance Day or Armistice Day which is the American Veterans DAy. From what I understand, there is a public holiday in Greece in October called Ochi Day which celebrates military honors. I see no reference to Memorial Day in Greece nor I am aware of a similar holiday on the same date in other parts of the world. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.242.236.66 (talk) 10:58, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

MSN Encarta highlight for 30 May 2005

An article on Memorial Day is highlighted today at MSN Encarta, located at Memorial Day. Courtland 17:14, 2005 May 30 (UTC)


I was taught that Decoration Day/Memorial Day was established by President Abraham Lincoln. Is there any documentation for this?

Question About Military Status in Remembrance

Does Memorial Day honor veterans who died after discharge from military service dishonorably? How about those who were convicted of felonies after their discharge from the military? And, of course, does the current federal holiday honor those who served in the Confederate armies but who died later after signing an oath of loyalty to the Union?

101 Critical Days of Summer

"The USAF "101 Critical days of summer" also begin on this day as well."

Redundant. Please change to either:
The USAF "101 Critical days of summer" begin on this day as well.
or
The USAF "101 Critical days of summer" also begin on this day.

Also, since it is an official Air Force title, all of the words should be capitalized except for "of". —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Camknows (talk • contribs) 21:27, 7 May 2007 (UTC).

While a minor quibble, a better line would be "The US Military's safety campaign, the 101 Critical Days of Summer also begins on this day." Or something along those lines. The Air Force isn't the only branch that participates, at the very least the Marine Corps and the Navy do as well, and Army PowerPoint presentations available through Google indicate that at least some of their posts do as well.Sdsanders 13:58, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

Another Reference for Memorial Day

A good reference for information about Memorial Day is at www.memorialday.org. Katiecalif 15:05, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

This is a bad link to a non-existent page.

- Try this website www.usmemorialday.org You can find out information about US Memorial Day. Memorial Day is a day to remember those who have died during our nation's service. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.249.80.138 (talk) 19:52, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

Why does this article fetures USA memorial day only?

There are memorial days in other countries too. I believe it should be renamed into USA_Memorial_Day.

Ans: Once there are entries for Memorial Day in other countries, it's certain that the article WILL be renamed. Until then, there's little point in differentiating betwixt entries that exist and those that don't. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.55.0.96 (talk) 20:37, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

I concur. Let's get articles on Memorial Days in other countries, and create a disambiguation page to allow the reader to select specific article(s). —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hersbruck (talk • contribs) 21:32, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

Decoration Day?

"The southeastern U.S. celebrates Decoration Day as a day to decorate the graves of all family members, and it is not reserved for those who served in the military. The region observes Decoration Day the Sunday before Memorial Day."

The whole Southeastern region doesn't celebrate this "Decoration Day." A list of the states would be a better reference. I don't know of any celebrations here in North Carolina versus the celebration of Memorial Day itself. The source of the celebration observance is needed to make the "comment" more valid.65.82.105.98 17:58, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Agreed. I've never heard of "decoration day" in the South either. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.62.75.67 (talk) 22:41, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

Whitsun

This is also a UK/European holiday known as Whitsun, which I note doesnt have an article. A bit POV, methinks, and needs resolving, SqueakBox 19:52, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Start of summer? I think not.

To me, Memorial Day is still springtime. But I live in Western Oregon where the hottest time of year runs from late June through mid-September, so the "start of summer" definition may work better for the hot-summer climates.

Its all relative. Please sign your comments. (~~~~)--Mazeau (talk) 02:48, 21 May 2008 (UTC)

In Minnesota (certainly not a "hot southern climate") most of us consider Memorial Day the unofficial start of summer. Most of the kids here get out of school within the next week or two, most people go to the lake for a weekend for the first time and a lot of activities that are thought of as summer activities start around this time.

dude —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.23.169.58 (talk) 20:51, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

POV Objection?

Perhaps I've missed it somewhere, but there doesn't appear to be any argument supporting the application of a POV flag to this article and I've removed it. --JakeInJoisey (talk) 15:29, 24 May 2008 (UTC)

User "Frap" has reinstated the POV objection apparently without comment. Wikipedia is quite clear on the use of this tag...
To mark a dispute on a page, type {{POV}}, which expands into:
 The neutrality of this article is disputed.
Please see the discussion on the talk page. (August 2008)
Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved.
Please note: The above label is meant to indicate that a discussion is ongoing, and hence that the article contents are disputed and volatile. If you add the above code to an article which seems to be biased to you, but there is no prior discussion of the bias, you need to at least leave a note on the article's talk page describing what you consider unacceptable about the article. The note should address the problem with enough specificity to allow constructive discussion towards a resolution, such as identifying specific passages, elements, or phrasings that are problematic.
I am, again, removing the POV tag and, hopefully, user Frap will express what he deems to be unacceptable before he again reverts. It's difficult to achieve consensus when there is no specific objection. --JakeInJoisey (talk) 22:00, 24 May 2008 (UTC)

POV McCutcheon Deleted

I deleted the McCutcheon cartoon because it is non-neutral political propaganda. I think it shows incredibly poor judgement on the part of the editor who inserted it to put an anti-war cartoon on a Memorial Day encyclopedia entry. John Chamberlain (talk) 20:15, 25 May 2008 (UTC)

It is possible the person who tagged this article for POV before did so because of the McCutcheon cartoon.

Opening Paragraph

While the changes I made are almost minor, I believe they reflect both better grammar and composition.

1.) The subject of this article is contained in both the title and first 2 words of the opening paragraph. Repetition of the subject name as opposed to "it" in the relatively short introduction (3 sentences) strikes me as linguistic overkill. Nobody's memory or reading skill is THAT bad. Comments?

2.) In my opinion there is no comma required following "after World War 1" in the second sentence as it is a necessary qualifier to the remainder of the sentence. For example, the sentence might also be concluded thusly...

"...it was expanded to include casualties of any war or military action after World War I."

In that case the insertion of a comma after "action" would not make sense and, perhaps, that is a better edit afterall. In fact, re-reading the text, I'll insert the above and solicit...Comments? --JakeInJoisey (talk) 14:24, 25 May 2008 (UTC)

Ooooops. Looking at this a third time, I realize that placing "after World War I" at the end of the sentence appears to qualify the wrong element and have replaced that with the following...
"...it was expanded after World War I to include casualties of any war or military action."--JakeInJoisey (talk) 14:48, 25 May 2008 (UTC)

Boalsburg, PA and official government resource

Two points: 1. The page currently mentions that Boalsburg, PA is the official birthplace of Memorial Day. This is not true; whatever claim Boalsburg may have to being the actual birthplace, the official birthplace was designated by Congress to be Waterloo, N.Y. Please change this ASAP (as a lot of people will access this page today - can't change it myself due to semiprotected status).

2. The above and a lot of other useful information about Memorial Day (including the fact that it was originally created as Decoration Day, can be found at this page by the Dept of Veterans Affairs.

JeroenKvanH (talk) 21:44, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

Factual accuracy & OR

This article has a lot of issues with factual accuracy & OR. One such example is this: "the first memorial day was observed in 1865 by liberated slaves at the historic race track in Charleston. The site was a former Confederate prison camp as well as a mass grave for Union soldiers who had died while captive. The freed slaves reinterred the dead Union soldiers from the mass grave to individual graves, fenced in the graveyard & built an entry arch declaring it a Union graveyard; a very daring thing to do in the South shortly after North's victory. On May 30 1868 the freed slaves returned to the graveyard with flowers they'd picked from the countryside & decorated the individual gravesites, thereby creating the 1st Decoration Day. A parade with thousands of freed blacks and Union soldiers was followed by patriotic singing and a picnic." and "The official birthplace of Memorial Day is Boalsburg, Pennsylvania. The village was credited with being the birthplace because it observed the day on May 5, 1866, and each year thereafter, and because it is likely that the friendship of General John Murray, a distinguished citizen of Waterloo, and General John A. Logan, who led the call for the day to be observed each year and helped spread the event nationwide, was a key factor in its growth." or even "Some of the places creating an early memorial day include Charleston, South Carolina; Boalsburg, Pennsylvania; Richmond, Virginia; Carbondale, Illinois; Columbus, Mississippi; many communities in Vermont; and some two dozen other cities and towns." Now, these sentences (and some are even whole paragraphs) are completely unreferenced, hence, I am challenging the factual accuracy of this article. RC-0722 361.0/1 04:23, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

  • We already have a tag that says the article needs more references. Do we really need the one for Neutrality and Original Research as well? It seems to be to be a reference problem, not a problem of neutrality or original research. JohnMGarrison (talk) 00:46, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
I concur (as far as the "disputed" flag is concerned). Lack of references (which is an appropriate tag in this case) does not, in itself, suggest lack of accuracy. It appears that the tag is mis-applied here and there are interim steps short of tagging an entire article for inaccuracy.
From WP:AD (emphasis mine)...
The accuracy of an article may be a cause for concern if:
  • it contains a lot of unlikely information, without providing references.
  • it contains information which is particularly difficult to verify.
  • in, for example, a long list, some errors have been found, suggesting that the list as a whole may need further checking.
  • it has been written (or edited) by a user who is known to write inaccurately on the topic.
If you come across an article whose content seems or is inaccurate, please do the following:
  • correct it right away if you can and also add to the article, as citations, any reliable sources you used to verify the information.
  • if the neutrality of the content is in question, please look at Wikipedia:NPOV dispute.
  • if only a few statements seem inaccurate:
    • insert {{dubious}} after the relevant sentence or paragraph.
    • insert a "Disputed" section in the talk page to describe the problem.
    • (Or insert {{Dubious|section|date=August 2008}} replacing 'section' with the appropriate section on the talk page.)
I'm removing the tag and invite RC-0722 to comment here. --JakeInJoisey (talk) 03:42, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
Which tag? RC-0722 361.0/1 03:48, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
The "disputed" tag. I'm not sure what your "OR" objection is based upon and will table that for the moment. --JakeInJoisey (talk) 03:52, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
A. I added the OR tags because the article has a lot of OR. Re-read my first post and you will see what I mean. B. The "Disputed" tag stems from the reference tag because several claims made in the aricle are unreferenced and could be cosidered innacurate. One such example is this: "Some of the places creating an early memorial day include Charleston, South Carolina; Boalsburg, Pennsylvania; Richmond, Virginia; Carbondale, Illinois; Columbus, Mississippi; many communities in Vermont; and some two dozen other cities and towns." Now, what if we're wrong and it's three dozen cities and not two? That would then be considered factually innacurate. Hence the tag. RC-0722 361.0/1 03:59, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
That would then be considered factually innacurate.
No, that would be considered factually unsupported, NOT factually inaccurate.
For the sake of continuity and conciseness, let's address one tag at a time...in this case, your "disputed" tag. It is not enough, as I read Wiki guidelines, to suggest the "inaccuracy" of an entire article (which is almost unfathomable anyway) without providing some evidence or documentation upon which specific "inaccuracies" might be challenged. Let me re-iterate...while your "references" tag is appropriate, lack of references does not necessarily imply inaccuracy. The disputed tag, therefore, has no foundation. --JakeInJoisey (talk) 04:15, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
Ah, I see what you mean now. Mea culpa. RC-0722 361.0/1 04:20, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
No "Mea culpas" necessary. Your edits were well-intentioned and inspired a productive discussion. The article does need work. --JakeInJoisey (talk) 04:31, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

Memorial Day and Poppies

Just this past Memorial Day, my wife mentioned to me that she had always bought red poppies from the VFW for Memorial Day. I had never heard of this tradition, so I spent an hour or so perusing the Web on the subject. http://www.botanical.com/site/column_rita/flanders.html summarizes most of the the historical points I was able to find. http://www.vfw.org/index.cfm?fa=cmty.levelc&cid=127 discusses the involvement VFW in this tradition. I really can't research it out the way it needs to be. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.220.228.170 (talk) 13:20, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

Minor edits / suggestions.

Please add "American" to: First enacted to honor Union soldiers of the American Civil War, it was expanded after World War I to include American casualties of any war or military action.

Please add where appropriate: Memorial Day in the United States typically does not offer the remembrance of fallen non-American military service personnel nor persons killed by the American military services either in or outside of the US. Mingmasterz (talk) 19:12, 27 May 2008 (UTC)MingmasterZ

I dunno Ming...I think it's rather clear that the day commemorates American casualties...but I'll try your suggested edit just to see if if I'm able to edit a semi-protected. --JakeInJoisey (talk) 19:33, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

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