WESTERN WISCONSIN – Each year on the last Monday in May, the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. Military are honored. Originally known as “Decoration Day,” Memorial Day began following the Civil War. According to History.com, “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.
For decades, Memorial Day continued to be observed on May 30. 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.”
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