What is Memorial Day? Holiday created to honor fallen soldiers
Memorial Day 2025: Wreaths laid at memorial in East Lansing
Service members place wreaths at the Medal of Honor Memorial and Veterans Monument during a Memorial Day ceremony on May 21, 2025, in East Lansing.
Americans are set to mark Memorial Day, the fifth of 12 federal holidays on the calendar.
The holiday honors those who died as a result of battle while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. It has also served a part of the country’s “civil religion,” according to scholar Robert N. Bellah.
“The Memorial Day observance, especially in the towns and smaller cities of America, is a major event for the whole community involving a rededication to the martyred dead, to the spirit of sacrifice, and to the American vision,” Bella wrote in his 1967 article “Civil Religion in America.“
Memorial Day is also colloquially considered the start of summer and is a major travel weekend.
Here’s what you need to know about Memorial Day.
When is Memorial Day 2025?
Memorial Day will be observed on Monday, May 26, 2025.
The holiday was made a federal holiday observed on the last Monday in May by the Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1968.
When was the first Memorial Day?
The first Memorial Day occurred on May 30, 1868.
The holiday was originally dedicated to the fallen Union soldiers of the Civil War by the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Union veterans led by Major General John A. Logan – according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
The opening of the order that created the holiday established it “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.”
Earlier accounts point to people decorating Union graves for Memorial Day in Boalsburg, Pennsylvania in October 1864 and a tribute at the “Martyrs of the Race Course” cemetery on May 1, 1865, according to the VA. The latter occurred when Black freedmen and White “Northern abolitionist allies” honored the 257 Union soldiers buried at the Charleston, South Carolina graveyard.
How is Memorial Day different than Veteran’s Day?
Though Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day both honor members of the military, they are differentiated by who they honor.
Memorial Day honors those who have died in uniform as a result of battle while Veteran’s Day honors all who have served in the nation’s armed forces, with the latter holiday particularly focused on living veterans – according to the VA.
Memorial Day is the second of three holidays honoring those connected to the military, following Armed Forces Day.
