I have been quite ill lately and because I feel the need to blame someone for my illness I will just go ahead and blame the Undertaker. I am making a recovery, slowly, but nonetheless it is still a recovery.
Around these parts we have seen an increase in cemetery visitations as well as grave site decorations. Again, we have been quite ill and failed to realize that this is indeed Memorial Day weekend. Memorial Day in America was first known as Decoration Day, and was a day in which people would go out to the graves of the Civil War dead to decorate their graves. The day first became widely observed May 30, 1868. According to a proclamation by General John A. Logan:
“The 30th 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 of ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.”
Memorial Day was later moved to be celebrated as the last Monday in May. Observances, ceremonies, celebrations, and parades take place now across the U.S. in celebration of this holiday. At Arlington National Cemetery a small American flag is placed on each grave.
Memorial Day in essence is the largest holiday in the US where people go out to cemeteries to honor the dead, specifically over a million military service men and women. And of course, there are similar days of remembrance in other countries. Overall, here at Burial Day we just believe that one should honor their dead, especially if in life these individuals worked tirelessly to make positive change and worked hard to protect others.
I don’t know of too many superstitions about Memorial Day, besides the typical haunting’s of cemeteries where military dead rest. There is a troubling statistic however of an increase of automobile deaths over this three day weekend. So, I caution you all to be safe this weekend because no one wants to wind up in a grave earlier than they should.
-Gravedigger
The Charge of the Light Brigade
by Alfred Tennyson
Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
“Forward the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns!” he said.
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
Forward, the Light Brigade!”
Was there a man dismay’d?
Not tho’ the soldier knew
Some one had blunder’d.
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley’d and thunder’d;
Storm’d at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of hell
Rode the six hundred.
Flash’d all their sabres bare,
Flash’d as they turn’d in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wonder’d.
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro’ the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reel’d from the sabre-stroke
Shatter’d and sunder’d.
Then they rode back, but not,
Not the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley’d and thunder’d;
Storm’d at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro’ the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.
When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wonder’d.
Honor the charge they made!
Honor the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!
