The other night I was having a fantastic time with some friends after a barbeque and the subject of family history came up. I had pulled some old photographs off the walls and we were talking about this and that character in the photo and when someone asked the question, I realized I had no idea what year my grandfather had been born. “No problem”, I said, “I’ll just fire up the Mac and call up my website – I have this awesome software running that I share with the family with lists and graphs and everything, we’ll just look it up!” Seconds later I was staring at the screen wondering what had happened to my data. I couldn’t log into my own site and all my family data was inaccessible.

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Memorial Day commemorates those US men and women who have DIED while in military service. It is not a day to honor those who served and lived (Veteran’s Day), or a day to remember those killed in attacks on civilians (9/11). It has been suggested by David Blight, professor at Yale that Memorial Day has its origins at a ceremony performed by former slaves in May, 1865 to honor UNION dead. During the day long ceremony, bodies were exhumed from mass graves at the old Washington Race Course (the racecourse had been turned into a prison camp during the Civil War) in Charleston, SC and re-interred properly. There may be no connection between this touching ceremony and the observance in Waterloo, NY the following year which is often credited as the first Decoration Day (so called because the graves of Union soldiers were decorated).

This first official observance was made by General John A. Logan which proclaimed in General Order No. 11 on May 5th, 1868 that the 30th of May would be observed as Decoration Day.

The 30th day 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. In this observance no form or ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.

You may note that these three origins for Memorial Day all point to the decoration of the graves of Union soldiers. Not surprisingly, most of the southern states refused to celebrate it. Mississippi, which is the final resting place of a considerable number of union dead did observe it. Hardly surprising then, is the fact that some southern states celebrate a different date – known as Confederate Memorial Day (of course now days this holiday is celebrated in addition to Memorial Day proper). Celebrated on either the 4th Monday in April or on May 10th the day gives an official nod to the Confederate dead of the US Civil War in much the same fashion as the (subtly) Union-centric Memorial Day.

Over the years Americans have forgotten some of this old enmity and most ignore (or are ignorant of) the distinction between Union and Rebel forces on Memorial Day. The day became more commonly celebrated after World War II. The name “Memorial Day” was first used in 1888 but only made official in 1967 which also ensured the day’s longevity by moving it by law to create a three day weekend. There have been several attempts to move it back to its original date (the 30th) because the three day weekend “cheapens” the holiday, but such movements (understandably) haven’t met with very much success.

Great article in the NY Times magazine today examining the question of Christianity in education as the Texas State Board of Education weighs various petitions for modifying the curriculum. On the one hand arguments are made that the ‘separation’ clause has been misused to totally remove any discussion of religion as a motivation in the founding of the US, while on the other that Christian factions are attempting to rewrite history and cast the founders as Christian fundamentalists. Why should we care, it’s only Texas? Simple, schoolbooks get rewritten based on how this very populous state decides to portray American history.
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Chaucer wrote The Parliament of Fowls in 1382 to honor the first anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II to Anne of Bohemia (they were both 15 years old when they were married shortly thereafter), but it has become associated with the present day celebrated as Valentines Day over the centuries since it is the first time Valentines Day is found “packaged” in such a manner, and probably in error (evidence the mating of birds referred to in the poem doesn’t occur until spring). The saints day for a bishop of Genoa named Valentine is celebrated on May 2nd and this may be the saint’s day Chaucer was referring to in the poem. It makes so much more sense to associate love with the flowers and rebirth of May Day, doesn’t it?

The narrator seems confused by love and hits the books to try to understand the situation and ultimately fails. The poem is filled with historical allegory which is invisible to the modern reader who is unfamiliar with the court politics of the day, the major characters, and their motivations or relations to the King and his bride.

The following excerpt from eChaucer, a modern English translation online hosted by the University of Maine

And when this work was all brought to an end, Nature gave every bird his mate by just accord, and they went their way. Ah, Lord! The bliss and joy that they made! For each of them took the other in his wings, and wound their necks about each other, ever thanking the noble goddess of nature. But first were chosen birds to sing, as was always their custom year by year to sing a roundel at their departure, to honor Nature and give her pleasure. The tune, I believe, was made in France. The words were such as you may here find in these verses, as I remember them.

“Welcome, summer, with sunshine soft,
The winter’s tempest you will break,
And drive away the long nights black!

Saint Valentine, throned aloft,
Thus little birds sing for your sake:
Welcome, summer, with sunshine soft,
The winter’s tempest you will shake!

Good cause have they to glad them oft,
His own true-love each bird will take;
Blithe may they sing when they awake,
Welcome, summer, with sunshine soft,
The winter’s tempest you will break,
And drive away the long nights black!”

References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine’s_Day
http://spotlight.ucla.edu/faculty/henry-kelly_valentine/
http://www.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/chaucer/PF.html