Our great and proud nation, the United States of America, has set aside ten (10) publicly observed national holidays for all Americans to enjoy and celebrate. Additionally every four years an eleventh holiday, Inauguration Day, is added to the annual calendar because of the presidential elections. A wide variety of special reasons and purposes support the observance of these declared national holidays.
For constitutional reasons, the United States does not have national holidays in the sense that most other nations do, i.e. days on which all businesses are closed by law and employees have a day off work. Pursuant to the Tenth Amendment, the U. S. federal government only has constitutional jurisdiction to establish holidays for itself, for certain federally-chartered and regulated businesses (such as federal banks), and for the District of Columbia; and pursuant to the First Amendment, neither federal, state, nor local government can require any business (other than those mentioned above) or any individual to observe any holiday. Otherwise, constitutional authority to create public holidays is a power reserved for the states. Most states also allow local jurisdictions (cities, villages, towns, etc.) to establish their own local holidays.
Pursuant to the Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1968 (effective 1971), official holidays are observed on a Monday, except for New Year’s Day, Independence Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.
All current federal holidays have also been made public holidays in all 50 states. States are not bound to observe the holidays on the same dates as the federal holidays but they are free to do as they will. Many states also have additional holidays that are not observed by the U.S. federal government.
Malls, shopping centers, and most retail stores close their businesses on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day and many on Easter Day as well, but remain open on all other holidays (early closing on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, and sometimes on other major holidays).
Virtually all companies observe and close on the “major” holidays. Some non-retail business close on the day after Thanksgiving (Black Friday) while some (such as federal banks and post offices) are not allowed to close on the day after Thanksgiving. Some smaller businesses normally open on Sunday will close on Easter Sunday, if it is their experience they will have very few customers that day.
Federal holidays are always a day off for federal employees, which also means that banks and postal offices are closed. Most private companies and certain other businesses observe federal holidays as well, or the big holidays. If a holiday falls on a Saturday it is celebrated the preceding Friday; if a holiday falls on a Sunday it is celebrated the following Monday. Most, but not all, states and most private businesses also observe a Sunday holiday on the following Monday.
Veterans Day is an official United States holiday which honors people who have served in the armed forces military services. These people are also known as veterans. Veterans Day is a federal holiday that is observed annually on November 11. Veterans Day is the same thing and coincides with other holidays known as Armistice Day and Remembrance Day, which are celebrated in other parts of the world and also mark the anniversary of the end of World War I.
Major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, with the German signing of the Armistice with the allied forces of Europe and the United States.
Veterans Day is not to be confused with Memorial Day.
Veterans Day celebrates the service of all U.S. military veterans, while
Memorial Day is a day of remembering the men and women who died while serving their country.
U.S. President Woodrow Wilson first proclaimed Armistice Day for November 11, 1919. In proclaiming the holiday, he said:
“To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with
solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s
service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing
from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has
given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the
councils of the nations.”
The United States Congress passed a concurrent resolution seven days later on June 4, 1926, requesting that President Calvin Coolidge issue another proclamation to observe November 11 with appropriate ceremonies. A Congressional Act (52 Stat. 351; 5 U.S. Code, Sec 87a) approved on May 13, 1938, made the 11th of November of every year a legal holiday: “a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as ‘Armistice Day’. ”
In 1945, World War II veteran Raymond Weeks from Birmingham, Alabama, had the idea to expand Armistice Day to celebrate all veterans, not just those who died in World War I. Weeks led a delegation to General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who supported the idea of a National Veterans Day.
Weeks led the first national celebration in 1947 in Alabama and annually thereafter until his death in 1985. Then President Ronald Reagan honored Weeks at the White House with the Presidential Citizenship Medal in 1982 as the driving force for the national holiday. Elizabeth Dole, who prepared the briefing for President Reagan, determined Weeks as the “Father of Veterans Day.”
U.S. Representative Ed Rees from Emporia, Kansas, presented a bill establishing the holiday through Congress.
President Dwight Eisenhower, also from Kansas, signed the bill into law on May 26, 1954.
Congress amended this act on June 1, 1954, replacing “Armistice” with “Veterans,” and it has been known as Veterans Day ever since.
The National Veterans Award, created in 1954, also started in Birmingham. Congressman Rees of Kansas was honored in Alabama as the first recipient of the award for his support offering legislation to make Veterans Day a federal holiday, which marked nine years of effort by Raymond Weeks. Weeks conceived the idea in 1945, petitioned Gen. Eisenhower in 1946, and led the first Veterans Day celebration in 1947 (keeping the official name Armistice Day until Veterans Day was made legal in 1954).
Although originally scheduled for celebration on November 11 of every year, starting in 1971 in accordance with the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, Veterans Day was moved to the fourth Monday of October. In 1978, it was moved back to its original celebration on November 11. While the legal holiday remains on November 11, if that date happens to be on a Saturday or Sunday, then organizations that formally observe the holiday will normally be closed on the adjacent Friday or Monday, respectively.
Many Americans mistakingly believe that Veterans Day is the day America sets aside to honor American military personnel who died in battle or as a result of wounds sustained from combat. That is not quite true. Memorial Day is the day set aside to honor America’s war dead.
Veterans Day is the day that honors all American veterans, both living and dead. In fact, Veterans Day is largely intended to thank living veterans for dedicated and loyal service to their country. November 11 of each year is the day that we ensure veterans know that we deeply appreciate the sacrifices they have made in their lives to keep our country free.
To commemorate the ending of the “Great War” as was World War I called, an “unknown soldier” was buried in the highest place of honor in both England (in Westminister Abbey) and France (in the Arc de Triomphe). Burial ceremonies took place on November 11 in recognition and solemn remembrance of the ending of the hostilities of World War I. The hostilities were ceased at precisely 11:00 a.m., November 11, 1918 (the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the year). The international powers of the world called this event Armistice Day.
In 1921, the United States of America followed England and France by laying to rest the remains of a World War I American soldier–his name “known but to God”–on a Virginia hillside overlooking the city of Washington D. C. above the Potomac River in a place called Arlington National Cemetery. The site of this burial became generally known as the “Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.” The tomb symbolizes dignity and reverence for the American veteran.
The entire World thought, because of the great loss of life, total devastation, and wide-spread destruction, that World War I was the “war to end all wars.” Had this belief been true , the holiday might still be called Armistice Day today. The total number of all military and civilian casualties in World War I was over 37 million. There were 17 million deaths and 20 million wounded ranking it among the deadliest conflicts in human history.
The total number of deaths includes about 10 million military personnel from all the involved allied nations, and about 7 million civilians. About two-thirds of military deaths in World War I were in battle, unlike the conflicts that took place in the 19th century when the majority of deaths were due to disease. Improvements in medicine as well as the increased lethality of military weaponry were both factors in this development.
The title of World War I as “the war to end all wars” was shattered in 1939 when World War II broke out in Europe. The total estimated of all allied nations war dead for World War II ranges from 60 to 85 million people, making it the deadliest war in world history in absolute terms of total dead but not in terms of deaths relative to the world population. The higher number of 85 million includes deaths from war-related disease and famine. Civilians killed totaled from 38 to 55 million, including 13 to 20 million from war-related disease and famine. Total military dead: 22 to 25 million, including deaths in captivity of about 5 million prisoners of war. More than 400,000 American service members died during that horrific World War II.
At exactly 11:00 a.m., each November 11th, a color guard, made up of members from each of the military branches , renders honors to America’s war dead during a heart-moving ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery.
The President of the United States or his representative places a wreath at the Tomb and a bugler sounds “Taps.” The balance of the ceremony, including a “Parade of Flags” by numerous veterans service organizations, takes place inside the Memorial Amphitheater, adjacent to the Tomb.
There are a number of other Veterans Day American regional sites that also present annual Veterans Day ceremonies.
Britain, France, Australia, and Canada also commemorate the veterans of World Wars I and II on or near November 11th. Canada has Remembrance Day, while Britain has Remembrance Sunday (the second Sunday of November). In Europe, Britain, and the commonwealth countries it is common to observe two full minutes of silence at 11:00 a.m. every November 11.
Veterans Day is a very special day specifically set aside to pay tribute to all American veterans–living or dead–but especially gives thanks to living veterans who served their country honorably during war or peacetime.
Whenever you are in or around the presence of any military veteran of the American armed forces or any allied nation’s military personnel, always extend to them a warm and grateful “Thank You For Your Service” accompanied by a big and warm-hearted smile on your face. Be sure to let them know just how very much they and their sacrifices are respected and appreciated by you and all Americans.
Freedom is not Free. You and I are free Americans today only because some body, some where, on some blood-satined battlefield was willing to sacrifice themselves and their lives so that you and I, the living survivors could continue to live and enjoy the safety and blessings of personal freedom in the United States of America.
Now you know more of what really happened…….