What is Memorial Day?

Why this is the answer

Memorial Day is the holiday for the fallen. USCIS gives a single accepted answer, a holiday to honor soldiers who died in military service, and the word that carries it is died. The study guide describes the same idea as honoring the men and women who died in service to the United States. When you answer, make sure that death in service is part of what you say. Its first name was Decoration Day, from the custom of decorating graves with flowers, wreaths and flags, and people in the United States began to observe it more widely soon after the Civil War. Today it is a national holiday on the last Monday in May, and it honors everyone who died serving the country. The Monday placement follows a broader pattern: the 2008 USCIS lessons note that since 1971 federal holidays have been observed on Mondays, with six exceptions, and Memorial Day is not one of them. Two customs show its tone. Each year at Arlington National Cemetery, a ceremony places a small American flag on every grave, and the study guide pictures a member of the U.S. Army honor guard walking past the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the same cemetery. The American flag is also flown at half-staff in honor of those who died in service. One mix-up to watch for is Veterans Day. Both holidays honor the military, they sit next to each other on the test, and under pressure it is easy to swap them. Veterans Day, on November 11, honors everyone who has served, living or dead. Memorial Day is narrower and more solemn: it is for those who did not come home. If you say "a holiday to honor veterans" or "a day for people who served," you have described the November holiday, not this one. It helps to tie the answer to a picture. Think of rows of small flags on the graves at Arlington in late May, and of the flag lowered halfway on its pole. Both images point to the same thing: a nation remembering the men and women it lost in uniform.