Music Celebrations International - 2008 Festivals - National Memorial Day Choral Festival

2008 Festivals : National Memorial Day Choral Festival

National Memorial Day Choral Festival Links


	Itinerary #1 3 nights / 4 days

	Itinerary #2 4 nights / 5 days

	Dr. André Thomas

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	National Memorial Day Concert

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Music Celebrations Presents
National Memorial Day Choral Festival

They are dead; but they live in each Patriot's breast,
and their names are engraven on honor's bright crest.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Iwo Jima Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is much more than a three-day weekend that marks the beginning of summer. To many people, especially the nation's thousands of combat veterans, this day, which has a history stretching back all the way to the Civil War, is an important reminder of those who died in the service of their country.

Music Celebrations is pleased to create and organize, during the 225th Anniversary of the end of the American Revolution, a Choral Festival in our Nation’s capital that honors those veterans past and present who have sacrificed so much for the liberties we currently enjoy in our country – as well as around the world. The setting for this commemoration will be the Concert Hall in the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Not merely an event for Washington, the inaugural National Memorial Day Choral Festival is an event for the entire country - a major event which seeks to draw the attention of Americans to the real meaning for the holiday: Honoring the men and women who have served, and died, to preserve our liberties.

Civil War The History

Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on May 5, 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11, and was first observed on May 30, 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery.

By 1890 it was recognized by all of the northern states, but the South refused to acknowledge the day – choosing to honor their war dead on different days. This remained until the end of World War I, when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war.

Memorial Day is now celebrated in almost every State of the Union on the last Monday in May, following the passage of the National Holiday Act of 1971.

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts