It started in 1868 with the decorating of graves. Graves of fallen soldiers that is. We urge everyone to continue the tradition of Memorial Day this Monday by decorating our memories with honoring American soldiers that gave the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.

Maybe the beginnings of Memorial Day were not auspicious for Southerners; three years after the Civil War ended it was an observance begun by an organization of Union soldiers. But the practice of honoring and remembering fallen warriors is as old as time-and war.

The timing of this holiday is particularly poignant, combining the birth of spring with the dust of death. It is thought that the government picked May 30 (the initial federal date of Memorial Day) because that is when there are flowers in bloom all across the country. The government may have moved the date, now it is the last Monday in May, but the sentiment is the same. This is a time for all of us to remember all our fallen heroes, everywhere in the country. More than 1 million American soldiers have made the ultimate sacrifice, proving indisputably that they felt America was worth dying for. We must remember them.

If you cannot make it to a cemetery, or one of the Legion observances going on in Newberry County or other memorials elsewhere, join in a personal moment that is national in scope. Established by Congress in 2000, The National Moment of Remembrance Act, in addition to “encouraging” commemorations on Memorial Day, also set up a standard for a minute of silence at 3 p.m. local time across the nation on that day. In that one minute of silence, it is hoped that Americans will take time to remember and honor those who died in military service.

As Athenian leader Pericles said of the dead heroes of the Peloponnesian War, more than 2,400 years ago, “...there dwells also an unwritten memorial of them, graven not on stone but in the hearts of men.” So lest we forget, let's decorate our soldiers' graves, if only in our hearts.