Decoration Day (tradition)
Decoration Days in Southern Appalachia and Liberia are a living tradition of group ancestor veneration observances which arose by the 19th century.
[1] While Decoration practices are localized and can be unique to individual families, cemeteries, and communities, common elements unify the various Decoration Day practices and are thought to represent syncretism of Christian cultures in 19th century Southern Appalachia with pre-Christian influences from the British Isles and Africa.
Cemetery decoration has also been observed along routes of westward migration from that region: northern Louisiana, northeastern Texas, Arkansas, eastern Oklahoma, and southern Missouri.
[4] According to scholars Alan and Karen Jabbour, "the geographic spread ... from the Smokies to northeastern Texas and Liberia, offer strong evidence that the southern Decoration Day originated well back in the nineteenth century.
So important are Decoration Day traditions that during the Ebola virus epidemic in Liberia it became essential for the Liberian government, the World Health Organization and other medical aid agencies to adapt Ebola protocols to fit within this cultural context: "The prospect of not having a location to visit or a grave to 'clean' by cutting the grass and laying wreaths on the national holiday of 'Decoration Day' was deeply disturbing, as was the idea that unfulfilled obligations to the dead could result in a lifetime of misfortune for the living.
"[10] In addition to revising protocols for treatment of the bodies of the dead, authorities also created emergency policies affecting the homecoming and false burial traditions due to large groups people assembling who were at risk of contracting the disease.
In addition to being observed in Appalachia and Liberia, Decoration Day customs spread and became localized along the routes of nineteenth-century migration pattern westward from the Appalachian Mountains.
While these customs may have associated in part with social rituals to honor military dead, numerous differences exist between Decoration Day customs and Memorial Day, including that the date is set differently by each family or church for each cemetery to coordinate the maintenance, social, and spiritual aspects of decoration.
In Liberia, this practice is referred to as false burial and, like funeralizing, is characterized by first burying the body immediately and then planning a larger memorial service during a cemetery decoration.
Scholars Alan and Karen Jabbour have postulated that Flowering Sunday might be connected to Appalachian cemetery decoration traditions.
Welsh cemetery cleaning and decoration traditions may have begun as an Easter celebration or seasonal rite before becoming more commonly associated with Palm Sunday.
[21] Richard Warner attested in 1797 "the ornamenting of the graves of the deceased with various plants and flowers, at certain seasons, by the surviving relatives" and noted that Easter was the most popular time for this tradition.
By 1803, Malkin's observations reflect the shift away predominantly associating the custom with Easter: It is very common to dress the graves on Whitsunday and other festivals, when flowers are to be procured.
… In the Easter week most generally the graves are newly dressed, and manured with fresh earth, when such flowers or ever-greens as may be wanted or wished for are planted.
[22]Peter Roberts characterized these practices in 1815: "In many parts, and especially in South Wales, the friends of the deceased take much and laudable pains to deck the grave with flowers.
A bordering of slate or stones, is nicely run around it, and the top bound in by stones, laid with taste, in a tessellated manner, which has an ornamental effect..."[4] By 1839, Charles Redwood referred to this tradition of cleaning and decorating graves on Palm Sunday as the "old custom": "All the village were there, engaged, after the old custom, in trimming and adorning the graves of their deceased relatives.
[26] Roman citizens brought offerings to the tombs of ancestors which consisted of at least "an arrangement of wreaths, a sprinkling of grain and a bit of salt, bread soaked in wine and violets scattered about.
After their conversion to Christianity, this custom transferred into the Russian Orthodox Church as the festival of Radonitsa, the name of which comes from the Slavic word "radost'", meaning "joy."
