Anyone who likes beer, bonfires, hot dogs and summer loves and celebrates Memorial Day. Who wouldn't love this holiday? It is the first celebratory day of summer and you get a day off of work. That's a double win, but where did this holiday come from and why do we "celebrate" it?
Set down your Bud Light and your foot-long hot dog for a second and allow me to remind you that this holiday should not be celebrated. I don't think we should celebrate Memorial Day at all. Now I'm not saying that the country should totally scrap the holiday altogether. We simply need to get back to the basics of what this June holiday was about. Memorial day was not created for a summer celebration. It was not created for you to get a day off of work. This holiday was originally created to remember those men and women in uniform that have died. Memorial Day has been observed since soon after the Civil War but did not become an official holiday until 1971. President Richard Nixon thought that it was important that we remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice.
Don't get me wrong I'm not saying that we should stop having barbecues and picknicks on the last Monday in May because I love a good celebration. At the same time, I can help thinking about how morbid it is to have one in celebration of death. Maybe what I'm getting at is that we can do these summer fun things, but we still need to remember why we are able to celebrate. We can have Memorial Day parades, have bonfires, and celebrate all of our freedoms because thousands of service members have died to constantly ensure that we get to keep those freedoms.
Perhaps my least favorite part of how people celebrate Memorial Day is the people that say "Happy Memorial Day.". How unsettling is that? Why don't you just say "Happy day to celebrate dead veterans"? You wouldn't say that, would you? One: because there's just too many words there. Two: because the words "happy" and "dead" don't belong together.
Memorial Day has become so commercialized like many other holidays today. It seems as though people categorize Memorial Day, Veterans Day, and the Fourth of July as almost the same holiday. They think of them all as a day to wear their American flag shirt and I hate to rain on your parade, but only one of these holidays was originally intended to be a celebration. Memorial Day is to remember those service members who have paid the ultimate sacrifice and died for us. Veterans Day is a way to say thank you to the service members who are still living. The Fourth of July is to celebrate this place we call home.
Despite your opinion of our military or our country right now, you should not use these holidays as an excuse to bash our military. You have so much to be thankful for because of these great men and women. We are fortunate enough to not have to know what life could be like without an organized military. We are fortunate enough to have men and women who are willing to step up and fight for you despite all of the ugly things that you say about them and some die trying.
So today, while you're enjoying your day off and grilling your hot dogs in your American flag t-shirt, remember the reason why you are able to do that in the first place. Remember that there are thousands that have died for you.
John 15:13
"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."
