Ah, Memorial Day weekend. Now, I know summer doesn’t officially start until the 20th of June, but is it late enough in the year that I can call it summer without jinxing it and summoning unpredictable freezing rain?

I mean, it’s time to roll out the barbecue, take advantage of sales, go watch a parade and remember the millions of people who have died in service to this country.

Memorial Day traces its origins to the Civil War. Legend holds that the first Civil War grave to be decorated was in Virginia on June 3, 1861, while the town of Boalsburg, Pennsylvania, set itself up as the home of Memorial Day after ladies of the town placed flowers on graves on July 4, 1864.

The first large-scale observance of Memorial Day, however, was orchestrated by black freedmen in Charleston, South Carolina. A total of 257 Union soldiers had died as prisoners of war at the Hampton Park Race Course and been buried in unmarked graves. The freedmen cleaned and landscaped the site, and worked in conjunction with missionaries and teachers to organize a May Day ceremony. The ceremony was recognized in The New York Times and other national papers, and attended by 10,000 people, among them 3,000 schoolchildren newly enrolled in freedmen’s schools built as part of Reconstruction.

As a national holiday, it was begun in 1868 by former Union soldiers as Decoration Day, set aside specifically to place flowers on the graves of fallen soldiers. The original date, May 30, was chosen, depending who you ask, either because it wasn’t associated with any particular battle or because it was the optimal time for blooming flowers. It had been codified as an official holiday in every northern state by 1890. In the southern U.S., the day was used to honor specific fallen soldiers as early as 1866, but later shifted to become more emblematic of the lost Confederate cause. Eventually, the two merged.

The Civil War, with its staggering death toll of 600,000 Americans, had a powerful effect on how our society handled memorial services. In fact, the end of the war, 1865, marked the beginning of the federal government’s practice of constructing national military cemeteries.

Since then, the day has expanded to include all those who have died in military service. It remains separate from Veteran’s Day, which is more to celebrate the living veterans of the armed forces.

I was fascinated and astounded while researching this. Fascinated, because, well, I will freely admit to being a history geek.

Astounded, because I had known none of this before.

Sixteen Memorial Days I’ll have lived through by Monday, perhaps 10 of which I remember, and yet the history of the holiday was such an unknown. But after 10 minutes listening to any local radio station, I can list you at least three stores offering Memorial Day sales.

The essence of Memorial Day is history, and memory and keeping the past alive. It’s not the nicest part of history, remembering death and loss, especially at a time of year that seems made for moving forward, but it remains desperately important to look back and keep understanding. No matter whether the gesture is something as large as recognizing the unmarked graves of hundreds of prisoners of war or as personal and quietly honorable as a flower or flag on a soldier’s grave.

— Nina Collay is a junior at Thornton Academy who can frequently be found listening to music, reading, wrestling with a heavy cello case, or poking at the keyboard of an uncooperative laptop.