[princessbelle]

I've always known it as "Decoration Day" as well. My brother is burried in a Veteran's Cemetary and they put little flags on all the graves. It is quite the scene with the white tombstones all in a row and hundreds of little U.S. flags. Very humbling and honorable.

My mom just left to go to Kentucky for the weekend as she has done every year from as far back as i can remember. She and my aunts go buy a bunch of flowers and decorate all my kin-folks graves, military or not. I remember my ex who was from Minnesota had never heard it called "Decoration Day" and thought it was weird that "we" decorated all the graves. I suppose it is cultural and depends on where you are from like a lot of things.

But, bottom line...it is a remembrance. An opportunity to take a little time at the tomb/grave of a loved one, no matter why or how they died. And just as it brings in the fresh, new summer months, it offers up new beginnings as we honor our past.