According to Merriam-Webster, the word Memorial can be either and adjective or a noun. As used for today’s federal holiday it is an adjective meaning “1: serving to preserve remembrance: commemorative, 2: of or relating to memory.”
The federal holiday of Memorial Day is officially celebrated on 
the last Monday of May. It is a day for honoring those who have died while serving in the armed forces, presumptively, those who died in war. There were two other days for specifically remembering America’s war dead. Armistice Day, a day to remember the dead from World War I. The other day is Confederate Memorial Day, which is still celebrated at various dates in 10 southern states beginning about April 25. Those who think the civil war is history would do well to reread the definition of memorial above.
The dead soldiers of World War II would too soon eclipse the number of those from World War I and so in 1954 a new day named Veterans Day replaced Armistice Day. It would now be a day to honor not only those who died in service to our country but all those who have honorably served in the military.
We are a war like people. Our deaths in war are massive. The largest death toll far and away was the American Civil War with over 655,000 dead. As a percentage of the population the death rate in the Civil War was over 700 times as great as World War II which experienced 405,399 deaths. World War I, the war to end all wars, suffered 116,516 U.S. casualties. This is followed in descending order by the death tolls from the Vietnam War and the Korean Conflict. In total, the United States has lost over 1,350,000 men and women in wars to date.
Today many men and women take advantage of the long Memorial Day weekend to remember their own family members, fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, and children that may or may not have served in the armed forces. They visit graves, trim grass, clean headstones, and leave flowers to remember their loved ones. Good for them remembering – something we all should do a bit more of now that we have some extra time.
For my part, I have been playing a 60’s song in my head called One Tin Soldier and remembering the words on the stone of the mountain people, “Peace On Earth.”
gobblers nob 