The American Legion Post 1015 will host a Memorial Day ceremony at Riverside Cemetery on May 29.
Guests are encouraged to gather at 11 a.m. This year’s ceremony will include a presentation of the colors, the laying of a wreath, a prayer and a 21-gun salute. The 2023 service will feature Brian Zeifang, a retired Marine and Director of Jesus is the Way prison Ministries in Rantoul.
Memorial Day derived from Decoration Day, which may have originated when southern women’s groups honored fallen soldiers when they decorated their graves.
General John Logan officially declared Memorial Day on May 5, 1868, before it was first observed on May 30 when flowers were laid on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. New York was the first state to recognize Memorial Day in 1973.
Most northern states observed Memorial Day while southern states honored their fallen soldiers on a different day until after World War I. When Congress passed the National Holiday Act of 1971, Memorial Day became a three-day weekend celebrated on the last Monday of May.
