History
Following President Abraham Lincoln's assassination in April 1865, there were a variety of events of commemoration. The first known observance of a Memorial Day-type observance was in Charleston, South Carolina on May 1, 1865. During the war, Union soldiers who were prisoners of war had been held at the Charleston Race Course; at least 257 Union prisoners died there and were hastily buried in unmarked graves.
Freedmen (freed slaves) knew of the Union dead and decided to honor them. Together with teachers and missionaries, blacks in Charleston organized a May Day ceremony covered by the New York Tribune and other national papers. Years later, it came to be called the "First Decoration Day" in the North. Beforehand the freedmen had cleaned up and landscaped the burial ground, building an enclosure and an arch labeled, "Martyrs of the Race Course." Nearly ten thousand people, mostly freedmen, gathered on May 1 to commemorate the dead. Involved were 3,000 schoolchildren newly enrolled in freedmen's schools, mutual aid societies, Union troops, and black ministers and white northern missionaries. Most brought flowers to lay on the burial field. Today the site is used as Hampton Park.
The historian David W. Blight described the day:
"This was the first Memorial Day. African Americans invented Memorial Day in Charleston, South Carolina. What you have there is black Americans recently freed from slavery announcing to the world with their flowers, their feet, and their songs what the War had been about. What they basically were creating was the Independence Day of a Second American Revolution.”
[from wikipedia]
La plus belle nuit du monde
C'est cette nuit de noel
Où les bergers étonnés
Ont levé les yeux vers le ciel
Une étoile semble dire
«suivez-moi je vous conduis
Il est né cette nu
The most beautiful night of the world
Is that Christmas night
When shepherds surprised
Rise their eyes to the sky
A star seems to say
follow me I will lead you
He was born on this night
Glory glory alleluia
Glory glory alleluia
Glory glory alleluia, chantons chantons noël
Glory glory alleluia
Glory glory alleluia
Glory glory alleluia, let's sing sing Christmas
Sur la paille d'une étableI
ls se sont agenouillés
Les pauvres comme les princes
Au pied de l'enfant nouveau
Et ce chant comme une source
A traversé le pays
Il est né cette nuit
On the straw of a table
They kneeled down
Poors and princes as well
At the feet of the new born child
And this song like a spring
Has crossed over the country
He was born on this night
Glory glory alleluia
Glory glory alleluia
Glory glory alleluia, chantons chantons noël
Glory glory alleluia
Glory glory alleluia
Glory glory alleluia, let's sing sing Christmas
La plus belle nuit du monde
C'est cette nuit de noel
Dans le coeur de tous les homes
Un peu d'amour descend du ciel
Tant de choses nous séparent
Cette étoile nous unisIl est né cette nuit
The most beautiful night of the world
Is that Christmas night
In the heart of all men
A little bit of love comes from the sky
So many things bring us apart
This star unite us
He was born on this night
Glory glory alleluia
Glory glory alleluia
Glory glory alleluia, chantons chantons noël
Glory glory alleluia
Glory glory alleluia
Glory glory alleluia, let's sing sing christmas
Failsafe 1964 - the bombing of New York City by American forces - shades of 911 to come 37 years later.
Go here: The Justice of God: Veterans Day
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