Memorial Day has arrived in the United States, with Americans asked to pause and pay tribute to those who fought and died for their country.
That observance is marked with ceremonies and even parades, but some Americans may wonder what the difference is between Memorial Day and Veterans Day.
Here’s a primer on what the holidays are meant to observe and celebrate, and how they came to be.
Memorial Day
Under U.S. law and custom, Memorial Day is intended to pay tribute to those who have given their lives in service to the United States, with ceremonies often held at cemeteries where those soldiers are interred.
Before it covered all wars, Memorial Day started out as a series of “decoration days” in the final years of the Civil War, with communities decorating the graves of fallen soldiers with flowers and wreaths, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
In 1868, Major General John Logan issued orders for a “Memorial Day Act” which established “Memorial Day” as a day to honor the fallen soldiers of the Civil War by decorating their graves and holding ceremonies.
According to the VA, soldiers who had died in all wars were honored on Memorial Day following World War I, a tradition that continues to this day.
Memorial Day’s place on the last Monday in May was established as part of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, passed by Congress in 1968 according to the National Archives.
Veterans Day
Veterans Day is intended to commemorate and celebrate the service of members of the United States military, but its origins were rooted in the aftermath of World War I.
In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed November 11 as a day to commemorate Armistice Day, the date in 1918 on which hostilities in the “War to End All Wars” concluded.
From there, it took a long time for the date to become an official holiday. According to the VA, Congress originally passed a bill in 1926 that marked November 11 as a date to be observed with “thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations.”
An official law proclaiming “Armistice Day” as a national holiday came in 1938 to honor those who served in World War I, and a 1954 piece of legislation amended the law to rename the holiday “Veterans Day,” to honor those who had served in all wars on behalf of the United States military, according to the VA.
The aforementioned Uniform Monday Holiday Act originally applied to Veterans Day, but according to the VA it was reset to its traditional Nov. 11 date by President Gerald Ford in 1975.
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