Decoration Day
a day set apart for decorating the graves of soldiers and sailors who fell in the American DECORATIONS War (1861-1865) and in other wars. The practice of setting aside a day to visit the graves of the fallen soldiers recall the memory of their noble deeds, and strew their tombs with flowers, took its rise early in the Civil War; first in particular places, here a city, there a village, or it might be a county. In time, many State Legislatures were induced to make a given day a legal holiday for this purpose, and the President and governors were led to unite in recommending the observance of the same day (May 30), now known as "Decoration Day," in every State of the Union. In the Southern States various days in April are set apart for decorating the graves of the Confederate dead, and the name "Memorial Day" is more commonly used there than Decoration Day.