Memorial Day or 'Decoration Day'

Those under 40 in the Upland and Deep South will probably have no idea of  'Decoration Day', it was for the 'all-dead', 'all-souls' in the 'winter of ancestry' and 'summer of the living'; starting in the early 20th century.  However in the 19th century, it was otherwise viewed and in the 21st century, it has yet another meaning.  As a child, I remember visiting early 1800's tombs, that seemed like small 'fogou', 'tumuli', 'biblical stone pile graves', old 'coffin' slab-shaped graves and flat slender almost 'north-eastern' type markers with stars, skulls (Momento Mori) and 'daisy-wheels' (hexagrams ie, Fate, Fortune).  These were cleaned, that is the weeds were pulled and faux or genuine flowers were placed on the grave.  'Modern Stones' were cleaned with 'product', i.e. ('Windex').  Several cemeteries were visited and it was the ancestors who were in 'war' and in 'peace', all ancestors, essentially -recent and distant, to the late 1700's.