Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, was established as a day for our nation to decorate the graves of our fallen, honoring and remembering their sacrifice. More than just a day off work, this day allows us to celebrate the lives of the people that paved the way for us to enjoy the freedoms we do.

Please join us at 3 p.m. local time for a National Moment of Remembrance, pausing in an act of national unity. Congress selected this time as a collective moment when most Americans are enjoying their freedoms on Memorial Day. It’s intended to give pause to the celebrations and honor those who’ve perished in service to their country, giving the ultimate sacrifice.

Dirge For Two Veterans

The last sunbeam
Lightly falls from the finish’d Sabbath,
On the pavement here, and there beyond it is looking
Down a new-made double grave

Lo, the moon ascending,
Up from the east the silvery round moon,
Beautiful over the house-tops, ghastly, phantom moon,
Immense and silent moon.

I see a sad procession,
And I hear the sound of coming full-key’d bugles,
All the channels of the city streets they’re flooding,
As with voices and with tears.

I hear the great drums pounding,
And the small drums steady whirring,
And every blow of the great convulsive drums,
Strikes me through and through.

For the son is brought with the father
(In the foremost ranks of the fierce assault they fell,
Two veterans, son and father, dropt together,
And the double grave awaits them).

Now nearer blow the bugles,
And the drums strike more convulsive,
And the daylight over the pavement quite has faded,
And the strong dead-march enwraps me.

In the eastern sky up-buoying,
The sorrowful vast phantom moves illumin’d
(‘Tis some mother’s large transparent face,
In heaven brighter growing).

O strong dead-march you please me!
O moon immense with your silvery face you soothe me!
O my soldiers twain! O my veterans passing to burial!
What I have I also give you.

The moon gives you light,
And the bugles and the drums give you music,
And my heart, O my soldiers, my veterans,
My heart gives you love.

– Walt Whitman