Memorial Day Celebrated in Renovo

By Christopher Miller

Two minutes.

That is the time it took to capture the true spirit of Memorial Day 2020 in Renovo.

A group of a couple dozen people appeared in and around the 16th Street Park, socially distanced, in Renovo Sunday morning for the Memorial Day service in memory of those who have passed on fighting for our country.

Retired members of all branches of military service were on hand to present the colors, a gun salute, and the playing of Taps.

To watch the pre-recorded Memorial Day service online, go to:

https://www.facebook.com/renovoheritage/videos/747461499126005/

The History Channel and History.com provide the following information on the official history of Memorial Day:

Originally known as Decoration Day, Memorial Day originated in the years after the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971.

The Civil War, ended in the spring of 1865, claimed more lives than any armed 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.

On May 5, 1868, General John A. Logan, leader of an organization for Northern Civil War veterans, called for a nationwide day of remembrance later that month. “The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land,” he proclaimed.

But in 1968 Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which established Memorial Day as the last Monday in May in order to create a three-day weekend for federal employees; the change went into effect in 1971. The same law also declared Memorial Day a federal holiday.