So another Memorial Day has come and gone and with it the editorials and opinions about how shameful it is that we barbecue and hit the beach and cook hot dogs on this solemn day where we’re supposed to be remembering those who died so we could cook hot dogs. But has Memorial ever (in recent history) been solely about the memorializing?
A brief look says that Memorial Day started out as Decoration Day after the Civil War. Ok, but I’m guessing everyone didn’t get the day off work for Decoration Day. You’d spend part of the day visiting grave sites but you still had to work the fields, run the shops, etc. In 1911, the Indianapolis 500 started having its race on Memorial Day of every year which seems to me that spending the day doing recreational activities is at least a century old tradition. It became a federal holiday in 1971 and I assume that was the start of it being a solid three day weekend for most people.
Obviously there has always been remembrance ceremonies, solemn parades and the like but is the recreational aspect of it anything even remotely new?