No Greater Love

Although millions of people celebrate Memorial Day with cookouts and barbecues, some of them have forgotten why this day is important. Perhaps they never learned. I’m grateful my parents taught me when I was a child. Memorial Day is a day to remember the soldiers who died while serving our country, and it’s a day to honor their sacrifice.

We also learned about this special day in public school, and we were even told to memorize the famous poem, “In Flanders Fields.” Years later I couldn’t remember when our country designated Memorial Day as an official day of remembrance, and I couldn’t remember who wrote that famous poem, so I did some research.

Three years after the Civil War ended, an organization of Union veterans established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. Maj. Gen. John A. Logan declared that Decoration Day would be observed on May 30. That year they held the first large observance of Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery. Washington officials presided over the ceremonies, and children placed flowers on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers. Smaller observances were held in other places, and several of those locations claimed to be the birthplace of Memorial Day. However, in 1966 President Lyndon Johnson declared Waterloo, N.Y., the “birthplace” of Memorial Day because a ceremony there on May 5, 1866, honored local veterans who had fought in the Civil War.

After World War I, Memorial Day was expanded to honor those who died in all American wars. In 1971, it was declared a national holiday to be observed on the last Monday in May, and small American flags were placed on each grave at many national cemeteries. This tradition is followed in many locations, even today.

In addition, two other popular Memorial Day traditions are often followed. Some people read the poem, “In Flanders Fields,” and they wear a red poppy to remember the sacrifice of brave soldiers who died in battle. Prior to World War I, there were hardly any poppies in the fields of Flanders, Belgium. The soil there and in the north-west of France was poor then, and the poppy thrives on ploughed fertile land. However, in 1915, during the second year of the war, letters were sent home of no man’s land being “ablaze” with scarlet poppies. After that, letters by soldiers constantly referred to the fields of poppies.

Some people wonder why so many poppies suddenly appeared there, but historians believe the war created prime conditions for them to flourish. Continual bombardment ploughed the soil and brought poppy seeds to the surface. Nitrogen in the explosives and lime from the shattered rubble of the buildings combined with the blood and bones of millions of men and animals. This mixture fertilized the soil. The longer the war continued, the more the poppies thrived.

A World War I surgeon, John McCrae, was inspired by the bright red poppies growing on a ravaged battlefield. He wrote “In Flanders Fields” to remember those who died in the war. The poem was published later that year and used in memorial ceremonies.

 

IN FLANDERS FIELDS

 

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

 

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

 

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

 

John McCrae (1915)

 

Several years later, Moina Michael read “In Flanders Fields” in the Ladies’ Home Journal. Inspired by McCrae’s poem, she wrote her own poem which she called “We Shall Keep Faith.” She also vowed to wear a red poppy as a sign of remembrance.

In her autobiography, “The Miracle Flower: The Story of the Flanders Fields Memorial Poppy” (published in 1941), Moina dedicated her book to Colonel McCrae and wrote that his poem was the inspiration for her Flanders Fields Memorial Poppy. After the First World War, veterans’ organizations adopted the red poppy as a symbol of remembrance for those who had lost their lives in that war. They also used it for fund raising for the care of those who had served in the Great War of 1914-1918 and survived.

In December 2000, the U.S. Congress passed “The National Moment of Remembrance Act” to encourage all Americans to pause wherever they are at 3 p.m. on Memorial Day for a minute of silence to remember and honor those who have died in service to our country. As we remember them, let us also pray for the loved ones they left behind.

 

Pray for the parents whose children are forever gone.

Pray for the siblings without someone they can call on.

Pray for the spouses who grieve in their beds, all alone.

Pray for the children whose parents will never come home.

 

John 15:12-13 “This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”