Weatherford College locations will be closed for the Memorial Day holiday on May 25, 2009. Offices will reopen and classes will resume at 8 am on May 26.

Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation's service.

Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 and first observed on 30 May 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery.  The first state to offically recognize Memorial Day as a holiday was New York in 1873.  After World War I the holiday changed to honor all Americans who died fighting in any war and the southern states began to honor their war dead on the same day. Most states celebrate Memorial Day on the last Monday in May (National Holiday Act of 1971), however, three states maintain a separate day for honoring their Confederate War dead: Texas (January 19); Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi (April 26); Louisana and Tennessee (June 3).

Read more about the history of Memorial Day at http://www.usmemorialday.org