Interesting Facts: Memorial Day’s date was first chosen because it was when flowers would be in full bloom.

Interesting Facts Memorial Day’s date was first chosen because it was when flowers would be in full bloom. Deciding when to observe holidays isn’t always an exact science. George Washington wasn’t born on the third Monday of February, for example. Memorial Day’s precise date on the calendar shifts from year to year (it’s always the final Monday of May, in case you’d forgotten), but at least the reasoning behind it is sound: The late spring date was chosen because it was when flowers would be in full bloom. Since adorning the graves of fallen soldiers with wreaths was once the most important part of the holiday, it’s difficult to imagine Memorial Day taking place at another time of year — especially considering that it was first celebrated in the 1860s, when floristry wasn’t quite as commercially developed as it is today. Certain aspects of the holiday’s origins are murky, but we know that in the wake of the Civil War, many different communities ...