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The United States has a new federal holiday. On Thursday, June 17, President Joe Biden signed a bill into law that officially designates June 19, as Juneteenth, known to some as the  “second Independence Day” as an American holiday.

Juneteenth celebrates the freedom of enslaved people in the United States at the end of the Civil War. African American communities across the country have observed this holiday for over150 years.

The date of June 19  was chosen for the holiday to commemorate the end of slavery in Texas, which was one of the last strongholds and didn’t happen until two years after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

Juneteenth has gained awareness in recent years as activists have pushed for state and federal recognition. Those efforts are finally being recognized with the signing of this bill.

On January 1, 1863, on the condition that the Union won the war, the Emancipation Proclamation would come into effect and declare that enslaved people in the Confederacy would be free. The proclamation turned the war into a fight for freedom and by the end of the Civil War in 1865  more than 200,000 Black soldiers had joined the fight for freedom.

Texas being one of the last strongholds of the South, made emancipation a long-time coming for enslaved people in that state. Many didn’t  learned about  their freedom until  Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, and announced that the president had issued a proclamation freeing them.  This is why June 19 was chosen and would become known as Juneteenth.

Early Juneteenth celebrations included church services, public readings of the Emancipation Proclamation, and social events, but for many years  southern Black communities were forced to celebrate Juneteenth on the outskirts of town due to racism and Jim Crow laws.

As the Civil Rights movement took hold in the ‘60s, Juneteenth celebrations faded. However, in recent years, Juneteenth has regained popularity and is still celebrated with food and community. It also has helped raise awareness about ongoing issues facing the African-American community.

In 1980, Texas became the first state to recognize June 19 as a state holiday. Today, June 2021, the U.S. Congress has finally passed a bill making  Juneteenth a federal holiday.

Juneteenth is often confused with Emancipation Day, which is annually celebrated on April 16. Just like Juneteenth originally celebrated freedom in Texas, Emancipation Day celebrates the day when President Lincoln freed some 3,000 enslaved people in Washington, D.C.  

 

Memorial Day is an American holiday, observed on the last Monday in May, to honor the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military.  This Memorial Day will occur on Monday, May 31.

In the spring of 1865, after the end of the Civil War, a war that had claimed more lives than any other conflict in U.S. history had established its first national cemeteries.

In the years following the Civil War, Americans across the US began holding springtime tributes to the countless number of fallen soldiers, decorating their graves with flowers and reciting prayers, but it was not until 1971 that Memorial Day became an official holiday.

In 1865, the federal government declared Waterloo, NY the official birthplace of Memorial Day in 1966.  It was chosen, because it hosted an annual, community-wide event, during which businesses closed and residents decorated the graves of soldiers with flowers and flags,  It has been found though that one of the earliest Memorial Day commemorations was organized by a group of formerly enslaved people in Charleston, South Carolina that took place less than a month after the Confederacy surrendered

In 1868, Memorial Day was first called Decoration Day. General John A. Logan, leader of an organization for Northern Civil War veterans, called for a nationwide day of remembrance in early May. He wanted May 30 to be designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country. He wanted to call it Decoration Day because it was not the anniversary of any one particular battle or war.

On the first Decoration Day, General James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, and 5,000 participants decorated the graves of the 20,000 Civil War soldiers buried there.

By 1890, many Northern states had made Decoration Day an official state holiday, but Southern states continued to honor the dead on separate days until after World War I.

During World War I  the United States was once again embroiled in another major conflict, and so the holiday evolved to commemorate American military personnel who died in all wars, including World War II, the Vietnam War, the Korean War and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In 1968, observe congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, and so establishing Memorial Day on the last Monday in May so that federal employees could have a three-day weekend. The change went into effect in 1971 making Memorial Day a federal holiday.

Cities and towns across the United States host Memorial Day parades each year, often incorporating military personnel and members of veterans’ organizations. Some of the largest parades take place in Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C. Many people consider Memorial Day weekend the start of summer and so take weekend trips or throw parties and barbecues on the holiday.

Americans still observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries and memorials. Some people wear a red poppy in remembrance of those fallen in war. A tradition that began after World War I from a poem written by John McCrae, a Canadian Lieutenant Colonel who a brigade surgeon for an Allied artillery unit. He had spotted a cluster of the poppies during the bloody Second Battle of Ypres. The sight of the bright red flowers against the dreary backdrop of war inspired McCrae to write the poem, “In Flanders Field,” for the soldiers who had been killed in battle and lay buried beneath the poppy-covered grounds. Later that year, a Georgia teacher and volunteer war worker named Moina Michael read his poem in Ladies’ Home Journal and then wrote her own poem, “We Shall Keep the Faith” to begin a campaign to make the poppy a symbol of tribute to all who died in war. The poppy remains a symbol of remembrance to this day. 

“In Flanders Fields”
by Dr. John McCrae,
Canadian Lieutenant Colonel 1915

    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.

“We Shall Keep the Faith”
by Moina Belle Michael 1918

Oh! you who sleep in Flanders Fields,
Sleep sweet – to rise anew!
We caught the torch you threw
And holding high, we keep the Faith
With All who died.

We cherish, too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led;
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies,
But lends a lustre to the red
Of the flower that blooms above the dead
In Flanders Fields.

And now the Torch and Poppy Red
We wear in honor of our dead.
Fear not that ye have died for naught;
We’ll teach the lesson that ye wrought
In Flanders Fields.

We Remember, Honor and Cherish

John G. Blanchette  July 14, 1916 – May 12, 1999
 Alexis J. Chagnon, Sr.  May 20, 1869- May 27, 1945
Bruce W. Chagnon July 30, 1950 – May 12, 2021
Chester “Chet” Chagnon  Sept 13, 1914- May 29, 2006
Henry L. Chagnon, Jr  Nov 29, 1948 – May 10, 2008
Jean Stephante Cluett  Nov 23, 1923 – May 20, 2004
Gregory Cluett Jan 22, 1918 – May 29, 2015
Alexis J. Coty  March 1, 1885-May 30, 1981
Mae A. Ashline Despaw  1913 – May 31, 1988
Doreen Chagnon Draper  Nov 14, 1956- May 25, 2017
Edward Duby  June 1822- May 18,1911
Blanche H. Martin Francis May 25, 1928 – May 4, 2012
Sandra Ann Genest July 20, 1970 – May 2003
Leon Gonyo Sept 5, 1933 – May 26, 2006
Barbara Martin Gonyo  Nov 10, 1935 – May 3, 2016
Herbert Gonyo, Jr Dec 20, 1928 – May 7, 2015
Edmund Laduke   May 28, 1964
Dorothy Pratt Lamarche  Nov 19, 1919 – May 1, 1996
Elizabeth Dusharm Lamore Oct 5, 1930 – May 31, 2018
Rosa Chagnon Lampron  1866-May 21, 1925
Andrew Marshall  Aug 20, 1938 – May 13, 2010
Beatrice Ashline O’Connell  Nov 5, 1929 – May 11, 2006
Robert K. Page Feb 10, 1923 – May 19, 1991
Aldea Poirier Paquette May 1, 1917 – May 6, 1986
Adelord Poirier May 7, 1909 – May 6, 1986
Mabel Miller Provost July 1, 1901 – May
Lawrence Riley Nov 10, 1902 – May 25, 1986
Gerald Roberge Nov 27, 1914 – May 25, 1971
Paul Thompson Apr 27, 1950 – May 24, 1996
Floyd Wood Apr 24, 1918 – May 6, 2004

We Remember, Honor and Cherish

Meadar Ashline                                                     1861-4/02/1919
Melissa  Brown Ashline                                       1856-4/10/1938
Raymond C. Bosley                                               7/6/1927-4/13/1989
Louise Morrow Bouchard                                   2/2/1905-4/15/1907
Joseph Lorenzo Chagnon                                    3/17/1881-4/12/1881
Pumilere Chagnon                                                 6/18/1876-4/14/1877
Robert Chagnon                                                     7/3/1947-4/09/2019
Absalon Couture                                                    7/19/1892-4/1966
Stella Baron Couture                                            1895-4/1972
Raymond W. Dorey                                              5/29/1919-4/15/1922
Joseph E. Dorey                                                     11/28/1885-4/06/1950
James John Doughtery                                        8/4/1917-4/15/1993
Vetal Duquette                                                      1846-4/30/1931
Leo C. Dusharm                                                      8/29/1926-4/13/2014
Sophia Coon Dusharm                                         1853-4/29/1940
Shirley Valyou Gardner                                       6/9/1932-4/07/1986
Irene R. Chagnon Gordon                                   11/8/1900-4/15/1990
Bruce Hardy                                                            12/21/1951-4/2/2004
Rachel M. Jolicoeur                                              2/21/1904-4/16/1990
Walter LaCasse                                                      2/08/1918-4/20/1918
George Lampron                                                    2/1862-4/30/1942
George Lampron, Jr.                                             8/19/1889-4/30/1972
Mazip Langlois                                                       1865-4/07/1928
Charles T. LaPlant                                                  12/15/1922-4/01/1980
Gordon F. Mossey                                                6/20/1943-4/17/1984
John L. Paquette                                                    8/11/1920-4/27/2001
Clara Monty Poirier                                              11/23/1879-4/25/1940
Mary H. Wheel Proulx                                         4/18/1974-4/22/1945
Sharron Shangraw Riccelita                               9/19/1951-4/25/2018
Samuel Shelley                                                       10/6/1893-4/22/1938
Edward E. Turner                                                   2/21/1934-4/23/1995