What Is the Difference Between Memorial Day and Veterans Day?

Veterans Day is a public holiday which the United States people celebrate every year on eleventh of November. This Veterans Day is set to be observed by the US in respect of the individuals who have worked in the Armed Forces of the United States. The US calls these people military veterans who have worked with the government to defend and provide security for the entire country. Memorial Day, on the other hand, is a day set aside to remember the US militants who lost their lives in the line of duty. The US remembers those who died every last Monday of May yearly. Unlike Veterans Day which is celebrated in respect of all the US militants, Memorial Day is specifically for the US militants who died serving the nation.

History of Memorial Day

This act of decorating the militants' graves started before the American Civil War. The first decoration was done to a grave of the first Civil War soldier in third of June 1861 in Virginia, followed by women's grave decoration in Savannah, Georgia in 1862. General John Logan formed a day in which the United States nation decorates the graves of the soldiers with flowers. He claimed that decoration day should be observed yearly in the whole country. He needed a day to be set aside for the remembrance of both the native Americans and Africans American soldiers who died in the Armed Forces of the United States.

The early celebration of Memorial Day in the south was linked to the ladies who put flowers in on the city cemetery in April 1866 in Columbus, Mississippi. The ladies played a crucial role in decorating the graves of the dead soldiers. Decoration day was an initial name of this holiday until. The United States' federal law changed the Decoration Day to Memorial Day in the year 1967. The United States law also requires the flag be raised to half of the flag post until noon then hiked to the top for the rest of the day. Raising the flag to half position shows that over one million soldiers died serving the nation.

History of Veterans Day

Veterans Day was legalized on thirteenth of May 1938 and was named Armistice Day. A Second World War veteran from Birmingham, Raymond Weeks, came up with the idea to extend the Armistice Day to celebrate all the veterans rather than only those who lost their lives in the First World War. The first celebration of all veterans was done in 1947 and since then was done on eleventh of November annually.

Military Personnel Holidays

The two days are crucial in the United States thus these days are taken seriously. All the citizens in the U.S celebrate the days in honor of military veterans of the Armed Forces. The military veterans did the commendable job to the US nation by providing security to all the citizens.