HOLIDAY: What it is - and is not

Your staff writer was incorrect when stating that Memorial Day is a “national holiday.” In the United States, there are no “national holidays.” Memorial Day is a federal holiday, as well as being a state holiday celebrated in most, if not all of the states. As a young man serving in the military in South Carolina, I was surprised to learn that several southern states did not celebrate Memorial Day, because of its originations as “Decoration Day” a day to honor and decorate the graves of the Union soldiers who died in the Civil War. South Carolina and other southern states instead celebrated “Confederate Memorial Day.” Whether that remains true today, I don’t know, but in any case, it is more correct to state that Memorial Day is a “nation-wide” holiday.

As a United States Air Force veteran, I am dismayed that, as in Saturday’s Coeur d’Alene Press article “So Much Meaning” and in countless other media pieces, the meaning of Memorial Day has been inappropriately and incorrectly expanded to include honoring living vets as well. Memorial Day is not to be confused with Veterans Day. Memorial Day is a very special day of remembering the men and women who died while serving. Let’s wait until Veterans’ Day to celebrate the service of all U.S. military veterans.

MARK DYMKOSKI

Rathdrum