Memorial Day is coming up this month, where families and military personnel will visit cemeteries nationwide to honor fallen soldiers.
The holiday started after the Civil War and was originally called Decoration Day, per PBS, when people would decorate the graves of soldiers with flowers, wreaths and flags.
Now, every Memorial Day, the president or vice president will place a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, according to PBS.
But why do we use flowers to honor fallen soldiers? And where do they come from?
How the poppy became the symbol for Memorial Day
The poppy is considered the symbol for Memorial Day and it started based on the 1915 poem “In Flanders Fields.” Red poppies started being worn as an emblem for “keeping the faith with all who died,” according to PBS.
This practice was started by a woman called Moïna Michael, who often wore the poppy to honor American troops while raising funds for veterans, per Reader’s Digest.
National Poppy Day occurs the Friday before Memorial Day. People are encouraged to wear red poppies to “honor the fallen and support the living who have worn our nation’s uniform,” per The American Legion.
Memorial Day flowers are provided to place at gravesites
According to the Arlington National Cemetery, placing flowers at the graves of fallen soldiers became a sort of ritual in the late 19th century and transformed into a symbolic activity that honors the war dead and is now known as the Flowers of Remembrance Day event.
During the Flowers of Remembrance event, people are encouraged to attend and place provided flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, along with other graves in the cemetery.
The flowers at the Arlington National Cemetery are provided by the Memorial Day Flowers Foundation. In 2023, the foundation provided over 300,000 flowers to the cemetery and sent an additional 200,000 flowers to cemeteries nationwide.
Some families will often create their own flower arrangements and place them at the gravesites of their loved ones who served, per PBS. After Memorial Day has passed, most flowers will be removed after they have wilted.
Taking flowers away from graves can be considered a crime
Laws vary from state to state, but removing flowers from gravesites can lead you to jail time. In Massachusetts and Virginia, it’s illegal to remove flowers, flags or decorations on a gravestone. According to federal law, there are certain rules one must follow when placing flowers or other decorations on a gravesite, such as only using a nonbreakable rod for flowers, but you can’t attach anything to the headstone itself.
Multiple people have been arrested for stealing the flowers off of graves. In April 2024, Arkansas police used GPS tracking to hunt down a woman who had been stealing flowers from a local cemetery and reselling them, according to News Channel 3.
In 2015, London CTV News released a viral video of a woman who had been stealing flowers from the same cemetery for months and police were seeking tips as to who the woman could’ve been.
If you’re planning on decorating a grave this Memorial Day, it’s best to contact the sexton of the cemetery you are visiting and know what regulations they may have before attending.