Lake Washington VFW to Hold Memorial Day Ceremony

Lake Washington VFW Post #2995 will host a Memorial Day program at , 1215 145th Place SE, Bellevue at 11 a.m. Monday.

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the day to remember those who have died in service to the United States has its origins in the Civil War:

Three years after the Civil War ended, on May 5, 1868, the head of an organization of Union veterans—the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR)—established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. Maj. Gen. John A. Logan declared that Decoration Day should be observed on May 30. It is believed that date was chosen because flowers would be in bloom all over the country.

The first large observance was held that year at Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.

After World War I, Memorial Day was expanded to include veterans of all wars.

World War I also was the origin of the tradition of poppies symbolizing Memorial Day, after the 1915 publication of the poem "In Flanders Fields" by Canadian physician John McCrae:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie,

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.