Memorial Day 2005 Article

Your Guide to Decorating Monuments on Memorial Day

Memorial Day is a day that is set aside to honor those people that have lost their life in military service. We set aside a certain day each year in the United States so that we make remember people who bravely served in the various branches of military and died as a result of that service. Many traditions occur on Memorial Day. One of those traditions is for people to gather and decorate various monuments of people who have died in service. Here, you will learn how to decorate monuments on Memorial Day.

People often purchase something called cemetery logs. Cemetery logs consist of live plants and a frame that resembles that of a window box. The reason that they are called cemetery logs is that the wood that is used to make the frame is made out of wood that looks like that of a log. If the weather permits, people will place live plants in the cemetery logs. If the area is experiencing cold weather, people will replace the live annual plants that they normally place in the cemetery logs with various types of artificial plants or various types of branches.

Since Memorial Day occurs on the last Monday in the month of May, most places will have warm enough weather to sustain live plants. Out of respect for the deceased, it is important to try to purchase live plants to place in the cemetery log that you choose. Most people purchase annual plants and flowers to place in cemetery logs. Once the annual plants and/or flowers wither away, many people will place artificial flowers on the monuments until the following Memorial Day celebration.

There are many different types of annual plants that are placed in cemetery logs for Memorial Day decorations. You may choose any type of annual plant. The purpose of the Memorial Day monument decorating ceremony is to honor and respect the life of the deceased service man or service woman. The flowers and/or plants are a mere representation of your respect in honoring that person.

Some of the many annual plants that you can purchase in order to honor and respect the lives of the people that died in service are as follows:

1) Salvia – Salvia usually has red flowers and is a medium plant. 2) Geranium – These annual flowers come in a variety of shades of colors. The colors of these plants could be purple, white, red, and pink. They are medium sized plants. 3) Alyssum – These are short, vine-type annual plants that contain white flowers.

Remember, there are many types of plants and flowers that you can get for your cemetery logs. It is best to try to get live plants and flowers, but it is ok to use artificial plants and flowers, as well as many types of branches to place in your cemetery logs.