It was always May 30 in my day so why when they screwed up the observance it was moved to a week early. Why can't they just leave our observant dates ALONE?????

Just a little bitter about a change that happened 38 years ago?

Y E S



and all the other dates they have changed



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/22/2009 08:41PM by samintx.

I'm sure you're aware that it was changed to the last Monday in May:

Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May (May 25 in 2009)

Here are the dates for this and the next few years:

Monday, May 25, 2009

Monday, May 31, 2010

Monday, May 30, 2011

Monday, May 28, 2012

Monday, May 27, 2013

Hang in there - in 2012 it falls on the 30th.

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It was one of the ones changed that was not a celebration of a specific date. You'll notice nobody changed the date we celebrate the 4th of July! Memorial Day and Labor Day are kind of like Thanksgiving. What date did you used to celebrate that? Gotcha!!

Monday holiday

Some info that may interest you here, Suzanne:

[www.usmemorialday.org]

Of note:
Your state was a holdout initially, refusing to recognize May 30th as the designated day.

Also, a Hawaiian senator introduced a bill in 1999 to restore the day back to May 30 but not much came of it.

Here's an online petition you can sign:
[www.usmemorialday.org]

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New forum user map 8/2015: [www.zeemaps.com]

I don't understand why they all had to be on Monday. Having some holidays on Friday would still give us a three day weekend, which I believe was the point.

I work at a college and we don't get all the Monday holidays: because if the school was closed for all of them, the Monday classes would get shortchanged.

And anyhow, what limited sort of thinking decided they all had to be Monday? I guess some government bureaucrat figured it was too confusing otherwise...

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"You'll notice nobody changed the date we celebrate the 4th of July!"

We don't celebrate the 4th of July... We celebrate Independence Day. It happens to be on the 4th of July.

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Paul F.
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A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand. - Lucius Annaeus Seneca c. 5 BC - 65 AD
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Good is the enemy of Excellent. Talent is not necessary for Excellence.
Persistence is necessary for Excellence. And Persistence is a Decision.
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Eureka, CA

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$tevie
I don't understand why they all had to be on Monday. Having some holidays on Friday would still give us a three day weekend, which I believe was the point.

I work at a college and we don't get all the Monday holidays: because if the school was closed for all of them, the Monday classes would get shortchanged.

And anyhow, what limited sort of thinking decided they all had to be Monday? I guess some government bureaucrat figured it was too confusing otherwise...

It would cause problems with religious observances.

Quote
$tevie
I don't understand why they all had to be on Monday. Having some holidays on Friday would still give us a three day weekend, which I believe was the point.

I work at a college and we don't get all the Monday holidays: because if the school was closed for all of them, the Monday classes would get shortchanged.

And anyhow, what limited sort of thinking decided they all had to be Monday? I guess some government bureaucrat figured it was too confusing otherwise...

I work at a state university, the Monday holidays are observed. To keep from shortchanging the Monday classes, they designate a number of Monday Class schedule days instead on another weekday during the week following the Monday holiday. Most semesters there is an even distribution of 14 class meetings each on Mondays through Fridays over the course of a semester. We are not the only school that does this either, I have seen it on others' schedules.

As for bureaucrats, they had not a lot to do with it. This law was passed in Congress by Senators and Representatives, and was lobbied for by both labor and businesses. It took major lobbying by veterans groups to move Veterans Day back to November 11th, and it at least had the connection to World War One's Armistice signing. Many early commemorations after the Civil War were not held on the 30th, not held in most of the South, and not even named Memorial Day until decades later. Even at the national level it did not get that name widely until WW II, and was finally officially that name in Federal Law with the bill that made it a Monday holiday.

P.S. The first formal declaration of a "Decoration Day" on May 30th in 1868 was picked to fall on a Saturday, and to not fall on the date of any major Civil War battle. Also only to decorate graves of Union soldiers. It was also done by the head of an organization of Civil War veterans, not any government agency.

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Scientology University doesn't count!

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JoeH

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$tevie
I don't understand why they all had to be on Monday. Having some holidays on Friday would still give us a three day weekend, which I believe was the point.

I work at a college and we don't get all the Monday holidays: because if the school was closed for all of them, the Monday classes would get shortchanged.

And anyhow, what limited sort of thinking decided they all had to be Monday? I guess some government bureaucrat figured it was too confusing otherwise...

I work at a state university, the Monday holidays are observed. To keep from shortchanging the Monday classes, they designate a number of Monday Class schedule days instead on another weekday during the week following the Monday holiday. Most semesters there is an even distribution of 14 class meetings each on Mondays through Fridays over the course of a semester. We are not the only school that does this either, I have seen it on others' schedules.

As for bureaucrats, they had not a lot to do with it. This law was passed in Congress by Senators and Representatives, and was lobbied for by both labor and businesses. It took major lobbying by veterans groups to move Veterans Day back to November 11th, and it at least had the connection to World War One's Armistice signing. Many early commemorations after the Civil War were not held on the 30th, not held in most of the South, and not even named Memorial Day until decades later. Even at the national level it did not get that name widely until WW II, and was finally officially that name in Federal Law with the bill that made it a Monday holiday.

P.S. The first formal declaration of a "Decoration Day" on May 30th in 1868 was picked to fall on a Saturday, and to not fall on the date of any major Civil War battle. Also only to decorate graves of Union soldiers. It was also done by the head of an organization of Civil War veterans, not any government agency.

[usmemorialday.org]

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OWC Larry
Other World Computing
[www.macsales.com]

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Drew

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$tevie
I don't understand why they all had to be on Monday. Having some holidays on Friday would still give us a three day weekend, which I believe was the point.

I work at a college and we don't get all the Monday holidays: because if the school was closed for all of them, the Monday classes would get shortchanged.

And anyhow, what limited sort of thinking decided they all had to be Monday? I guess some government bureaucrat figured it was too confusing otherwise...

It would cause problems with religious observances.

That's the first time someone has given me a good reason.

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