Memorial Day. You've heard of it. Of course you have. But here's what you may not realize: to many in West Virginia, Memorial Day has another name as well. We call it Decoration Day, and it's a chance for us to remember and honor not just soldiers who have died, but also any loved ones - family, friends, sometimes even strangers - who are no longer with us by beautifying and decorating their graves.
Decoration Day is an Appalachian tradition that actually pre-dates Memorial Day. Decoration Day is often celebrated on or near Memorial Day and focuses not just on honoring military dead, but also on honoring and celebrating friends and family who have died.
Family, friends, churches, and communities gather on Decoration Day to clean cemeteries and place beautiful, colorful flowers, often artificial ones so they last longer, on the graves of departed loved ones.
Pictured here is Felix Mollett of Canton, Ohio. He is cleaning family graves on Graveyard Hill in Raleigh County, West Virginia during a Decoration Day event.
Sometimes singing is involved, or a pot luck supper in the graveyard. Some folks will travel hundreds of miles to return to their roots to participate in this event. In some ways, it's like a family reunion. In other ways, it's like a worship service and a memorial service in one.
Pictured are tombstones in Biley-Boggess Cemetery on Bailey Mountain in West Virginia that have been cleaned and decorated during a Decoration Day.
Decoration Day practices can vary by region, but are common throughout Southern Appalachia, including West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. Decoration Day is also practiced in the Utah Mormon culture and in Liberia.
If you've never heard of, let alone participated in, Decoration Day, it might all sound a little strange to your ears. But it's a precious tradition, and one loaded with deep value and significance.
Picture, if you will, people coming together across time and space to honor loved ones, which means that those loved ones, even in death, are bringing communities together in fellowship. Picture, if you will, graves freshly cleared of vines and overgrowth. Picture closely mown grass. Picture colorful flowers on every grave.
If you're doing it right, you've just pictured a folk art masterpiece. THAT is the magic, and the power, of Decoration Day.
Do you celebrate the Appalachian tradition of Decoration Day on Memorial Day? (Had you ever even heard of it before?) Who do you remember and honor as you do so? If you love learning more about Appalachia, and about holidays, then don't miss the tragic connection between West Virginia and Father's Day.
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