When was the first Memorial Day celebrated?
That is hard to say exactly. It dates from the Civil Way and was celebrated by various states before becoming a national holiday. It was called Decoration Day early in the last century. I recall my grandparents always called it that and my parents often did. It was so named because the graves of veterans were decorated with flowers and flags on that day.
WIkipedia’s Memorial Day page has a lot of good history on its evolution.
Under orders by General John Logan, commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, the nation’s first Memorial Day was May 30, 1868.
My town has held a ceremony every year since and each year General Logan’s orders are read.
I’ll reiterate that the question is at best undecided. For example, Prof. David Blight of the Yale’s History Department claims the first memorial day was in May 1865 at Charleston, South Carolina and celebrated by freed slaves. I can’t give you an exact cite. This is from personal conversation coming up because Yale celebrates its graduation the fourth Monday in May which often coincides with Memorial Day.
Correct, but general Logan’s orders are generally accepted as the origin of a simultaneous, nationwide remembrance to be held on May 30.
Part of the order reads, “It is the purpose of the Commander in Chief to inaugurate this observance with the hope that it will be kept up from year to year, while a survivor of the war remains to honor the memory of his departed comrades. He earnestly desires the public press to call attention to this Order, and lend its friendly aid in bringing it to the notice of comrades in all parts of the country in time for simultaneous compliance therewith.”
To go back to the history of my Massachusetts town, in 1866 the town set up a committee to build a monument to those who died in the Civil War. In 1867 Town Meeting authorized $1,700 to build it. And, in keeping with the orders issued by General Logan, the first ceremony to honor the dead was held at the newly erected monument on May 30, 1868. So people were doing various things to honor the dead after the war ended, but the declaration that a national remembrance be held annual on a specific date in May was issued by John Logan.
When I was a kid in the 50s, the Decoration Day parade was a really big deal. All of us kids used to decorate our bikes with stuff like crepe paper and plastic streamers. To us, that was the only significance of the term “Decoration Day.”
Earliest I have heard was the day of holiday & games held each year in memorial for King Leonidas I and his 300 Spartans from the battle of Thermopylae, in 480 BC. This Memorial Day was started around 420 BC, 2.5 millennium ago.