It occurred to me after posting on Saturday those cartoons from November 11, 1921, that I might be adding to the tendency nowadays to confuse Veterans' Day and Memorial Day.
Memorial Day honors servicemembers who died in war; one is to lower the flag to half staff during the morning and raise it to full staff at noon. Veterans' Day honors those servicemembers who came home and are still alive; one is to display the flag at full staff all day.
We also have Armed Forces Day on the third Saturday in May to honor our military personnel still in uniform, but that keeps getting coopted by Peace Officers' Memorial Day on May 15, another half-staff occasion. I guess when May 15 falls on a Saturday, one is supposed to display the flag at three-quarters staff.
The cartoonists in 1921 were not being confused about whom the nation was honoring on November 11. The day was Armistice Day to them, its honors not restricted either to the living or the dead. The change to Veterans' Day was not made official until 1954, by which time the armistice of World War I had been demonstrated to be less than permanent.
No comments:
Post a Comment