{"id":82861,"date":"2018-11-13T12:50:42","date_gmt":"2018-11-13T16:50:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=82861"},"modified":"2018-11-13T12:38:13","modified_gmt":"2018-11-13T16:38:13","slug":"82861","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=82861","title":{"rendered":"Veterans Day Is Not Memorial Day"},"content":{"rendered":"
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poppy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There seems to be some confusion in the public about Memorial Day and Veterans Day. \u00a0This should clear things up. They are observed in different months (May vs. November) and one is a federal holiday, which means government offices are closed, while the other is not.<\/p>\n

Memorial Day is always the last Monday in the month of May<\/em> every year. It\u2019s a federal holiday, which means that it is officially a day when government is shut down, just like Thanksgiving Day (and sometimes the day after turkey day!). Originally known as Decoration Day, the name was officially changed to Memorial Day in 1971.<\/p>\n

Decoration Day was started as a way to remember the fallen and missing in the aftermath of the Civil War. It started as local and sometimes individual events, but the town of Waterloo, NY, had already begun to hold a communitywide event, starting in 1866.<\/p>\n

The full history of Memorial Day, including the reason for making it a 3-day weekend for government employees, is here at https:\/\/www.history.com\/topics\/holidays\/memorial-day-history<\/a><\/p>\n

Established as the last Monday in the month of May, every year, it is a day when everything government is closed for a day off. There is no specified calendar date<\/em> for Memorial Day. It is always the last Monday in May.<\/p>\n

The establishment of Armistice (Veterans) Day as a national holiday, but not a government day off, followed Decoration (Memorial) Day, and is always the date of the signing of the peace treaty ending World War I, which was November 11, 1918.<\/p>\n

I wrote an article for Veterans Day, outlining the history of this date. \u00a0https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=82786<\/a><\/p>\n

Originally known as Armistice Day, President Eisenhower\u2019s administration changed it to Veterans Day in 1954 to honor the fallen of World War II, in which he was posted to the European theater, and the Korean War. It now includes all those fallen in warfare as well as living veterans and frequently, active duty people, too, and is always observed on November 11th<\/sup><\/em>, the date of the signing of the Armistice ending World War I.\u00a0 The day of the week does not matter. This year, it fell on Sunday and a large memorial event took place at Arlington National Cemetery on Sunday, as well as observations and ceremonies in France at American cemeteries there and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

The difference between these two days honoring the military and those fallen in warfare is simple.<\/p>\n

They both have a specific month, but one has a permanently fixed week day, and the other is a permanently fixed calendar date. \u00a0What’s the difference in these two words: day versus date? Friday is not always Friday the 13th, but Christmas Day is always December 25.<\/p>\n

Memorial Day has a permanently designated weekday<\/em>, the last Monday in May, every year. It is a federal holiday, meaning banks will be closed and the government has a three-day weekend, as do a lot of private businesses and some banks.<\/p>\n

Veterans Day is observed always<\/em> on November 11 every year<\/em>, regardless of the day of the week. It is not a federal holiday<\/em>, but if it fell near a weekend when I was working, I usually took a long weekend. A lot of people I knew did the same thing.<\/p>\n

I don’t know how much more plainly these differences can be explained. \u00a0However, it\u00a0should clear up any confusion in people who decided that somehow, Veterans Day this year fell on Monday, November 12, when it did not. The ceremony was held at Arlington National Cemetery on November 11, not on the next day<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There seems to be some confusion in the public about Memorial Day and Veterans Day. \u00a0This … Veterans Day Is Not Memorial Day<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":653,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,96,188],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-historical","category-holidays","category-reality-check"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/653"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=82861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82861\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=82861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=82861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=82861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}