The following article is from the Times Daily of Florence, Alabama.
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A Southern tradition
Decoration Day a time for family togetherness, celebration
By Kenda Williams, Staff Writer, TimesDaily
Billy Barnet visits and cleans family graves at North Carolina Church of Christ Cemetery near Greenhill.
Decoration Day at cemeteries is an important tradition for many Southerners, including Bill McDonald's family.
"I remember good memories of when my family would meet on the Saturday before Decoration Day and clean off the cemetery; and on Sunday we'd all gather with each family and where people are buried in the cemetery," said McDonald, Florence city historian.
McDonald said he hopes to pass on the tradition to his grandchildren because, he said, it's an important part of family heritage.
"I have grandchildren and they are very much interested in where their families are buried," McDonald said. "I take them there to show them a great part of their early-history.
The grave decorating tradition isn't a new one, McDonald said, and it goes back to Civil War days. Throughout the spring and summer months every year, family gravesites and rural church cemeteries across the South are spruced up and given new life with fresh or silk flowers.
Carolyn Fuqua, of Florence, met with her family during Mother's Day weekend to decorate her mother's grave in Elgin at Butler Cemetery.
"Mother has been dead for 20 years, and it's something my brother and sisters and all of our offspring get together to do on Mother's Day," Fuqua said.
For their Decoration Day tradition, the family goes to the gravesite, places new flower arrangements on the grave, visits for a while and has a meal together afterward.
"We spend that day together and celebrate our mom," Fuqua said. "It's just tradition now and a way for us to show our memory of mom and that we love her."
Some individual families, churches and groups choose to gather on Memorial Day weekend to pay homage with grave decorating, not only to those who were in the military but also to deceased family members.
Ninon Parker, chairwoman of the Colbert County Historical Landmarks Foundation, said its not uncommon for churches across the south to have decoration days along with annual church homecoming celebrations that include religious singings and potluck dinners.
"I think it's important because it brings us together as families, and it gives us an opportunity to reflect on the people who have been meaningful in our lives and contributions they've made in our lives," Parker said. "I don't think of it as being a somber time. I think of it as a time to celebrate lives and the bonds between families."
Lee Freeman, 39, is supervisor for the local history and genealogy department at the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library. Freeman said as long as he can remember, he and his family would always spend the second Sunday, every June, at the family's gravesite in Pisgah Methodist Church Cemetery in Cloverdale.
"I remember it always being hot out there. It used to bug me sometimes because a whole Sunday afternoon was wasted except for the food. We'd go after the church service and stay for the meal and for my grandmother to reminisce with all the old timers at the gravesites," Freeman said.
As a child, Freeman said he didn't appreciate the tradition as much as he does now.
"It's a way of connecting with family and ancestors, and it's a way to sample some excellent cuisine," Lee said. "It's a great way to see family you never get to see, and it's a living connection to the past, because you're acknowledging family that has passed."
Incorporating Southern-style food and family time in the tradition, along with honoring ancestors is something that Lee said he has always enjoyed about Decoration Day.
"It's amazing how many people my age and younger are interested in family history and genealogy," Lee said.
McDonald said grave decorating has increased in popularity through the years, with the ever-growing attraction to family genealogy and historical preservation.
"The decoration of graves is promoted by historians because it helps them share the protection of these small early cemeteries throughout the South," McDonald said. "Being able to find the cemeteries makes people interested in the preservation of gravesites."
As for the future, Parker said she believes the tradition of grave decorating will continue, as long as families share and pass on memories with one another.
"I have memories of way back in my childhood of going with my family to the cemeteries, and it was an important ritual to go back," Parker said. "It actually gave me a chance to feel like I knew my grandmother, my great-grandmother and my grandfather that I wouldn't have known if we didn't have that important time to go back and visit the graves."
Kenda Williams can be reached at 740-5720 or kenda.williams@
Pasted in from myspace blog on 3/23/14
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