The History of Memorial Day

A friend at work today told me about how Memorial Day first started and I thought it was interesting enough to do a post about. So I came home to look it up and the first thing that popped up was Snopes.


My friend said that Memorial Day was started by former slaves on May, 1, 1865 in Charleston, SC when they honored 257 dead Union Soldiers who had been buried in a mass grave in a Confederate prison camp. 

She told me that the 257 bodies were reburied to give them a decent burial and that it took the former slaves 2 weeks.

Afterwards they had a parade to celebrate and in gratitude for the ultimate sacrifice the people had given in fighting for their freedom.

Memorial Day was started by former slaves on May, 1, 1865 in Charleston, SC to honor 257 dead Union Soldiers who had been buried in a mass grave in a Confederate prison camp. They dug up the bodies and worked for 2 weeks to give them a proper burial as gratitude for fighting for their freedom. They then held a parade of 10,000 people led by 2,800 Black children where they marched, sang and celebrated.
Read more at http://www.snopes.com/military/memorialday.asp#6guYoy6Qt2s4zvsF.99

Memorial Day was started by former slaves on May, 1, 1865 in Charleston, SC to honor 257 dead Union Soldiers who had been buried in a mass grave in a Confederate prison camp. They dug up the bodies and worked for 2 weeks to give them a proper burial as gratitude for fighting for their freedom. They then held a parade of 10,000 people led by 2,800 Black children where they marched, sang and celebrated.
Read more at http://www.snopes.com/military/memorialday.asp#6guYoy6Qt2s4zvsF.99

The 12 Days of Christmas

Why all the birds?

After all this song has: a partridge, turtle doves, french hens, calling birds, geese, and even swans a-swimming. What does fowl have to do with Christmas...well, except for the turkey we're planning on inviting to dinner ;)

I've always wondered what the heck that song meant.

I'd heard that each gift was supposed to represent something from the Christian faith so I thought I'd look into it.

The song outlines gifts given for each of the 12 days of Christmas and some people say these gifts are only symbols:

1 partridge in a pear tree = Christ
2 turtle doves = The Old and New testaments
3 French Hens = Faith, Hope and Charity
4 Calling Birds=the Four Gospels
5 Golden Rings = The first Five Books of the Old Testament, “Pentateuch”
6 Geese A-laying = the six days of creation
7 Swans A-swimming= the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, the sacraments
8 Maids A-Milking=the eight beatitudes
9 Ladies Dancing=the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit
10 Lords A-leaping = the ten commandments
11 Pipers Piping=the eleven faithful apostles
12 Drummers Drumming=the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostle’s creed

But snopes says nope.

Still, I think it's a fun song. What do you think?