Memorial Day, like many other American holidays, is no longer a day, but rather a weekend. It begins on the Friday before the official holiday, which like most American federal holidays is scheduled for a Monday. Parenthetically speaking, there may have been a time when holidays were celebrated on a particular day of the year, regardless of the day of the week; yet I, and many of my readers, are too young to remember such a time. So, Monday it is.
A time may also have existed when federal holidays focused on the purpose of the holiday. In the case of Memorial Day, Americans are supposed to be remembering the men and women who died while serving in the country’s armed forces.
Instead, Memorial Day has come to represent the beginning of summer. It is the time of year when people ready their summer homes and their boats for weekend use and for vacation weeks. In other words, it is a celebration of several months of leisure, basking in the warmth of the summer sun, until the cool winds of fall snap us back to the reality of employment and enterprise.
