Were words fail, music speaks.
- Hans Christian Andersen
If you have ever stood a little taller and experienced goose-bumps when hearing The Star Spangled Banner or ever had moist eyes when singing O Beautiful, For Spacious Skies, then you already know the impact of music. If you have ever been in a large audience and stood when Anchors Aweigh was played to identify your loved one's or your own service in the Navy, or The Marines' Hymn, The Caisson Song, Semper Paratus (Coast Guard), or the U. S. Air Force Song, then you are acquainted with the power that music has to inspire and unify.
This month we recognize Memorial Day, which is an even older military observance than Veterans' Day. Memorial Day was originally called Decoration Day, a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation's service. Musical history traces its origins to 1867 when women's groups in the South decorated graves before the end of the Civil War. Memorial Day was first officially proclaimed in May 1868 when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after WWI (when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war). It is now celebrated in almost every State on the last Monday in May (passed by Congress in 1968 to ensure a three-day weekend for federal holidays), though several Southern states have an additional, separate day for honoring the Confederate war dead.
While we decry the need for stirring music as we pray and fight for peace, we sing with the
heart-beat, march to the tempo, mourn, cry, listen to the bugler's wail. We celebrate our
hard-won freedom, asking for God's continued blessings on our country and our armed forces
around the world.