With Memorial Day coming up on Monday, this weekend is the perfect time to visit a military memorial or cemetery to pay respects to those who ve answered the call to service.
Memorials exist throughout the area, including in Cadillac, Manton, Evart, Marion, Reed City and Lake City, to name a few communities.
Come Monday, while some Memorial Day events have been cancelled as a result of COVID-19, a number of marches and gatherings still are scheduled to be held.
Unlike Veterans Day, which is a holiday held in honor of all veterans past and present, Memorial Day focuses specifically on those veterans who died while in military service to their country.
The history of Memorial Day May 24, 2021 on News
Three years after the Civil War ended, on May 5, 1868, the head of an organization of Union veterans the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) established Decoration Day as a time for Americans to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. Maj. Gen. John A. Logan declared that Decoration Day should be observed on May 30. It is believed that date was chosen because flowers would be in bloom all over the country.
The first large observance was held that year at Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.