Military exercises and special programs are held at Gettysburg National Military Park and at the National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia . In addition, to honor those who died at sea, some United States ports organize ceremonies in which miniature ships filled with flowers are set afloat on the water. Since the end of World War I, Memorial Day has also been Poppy Day. Volunteers sell small, red artificial poppies in order to help disabled veterans. In recent years, the custom has grown in most families to decorate the graves of loved ones on Memorial Day.
Several communities claim to have originated Memorial Day.
But in 1966, the U.S. government proclaimed Waterloo, New York, the birthplace of the holiday. Businesses were closed, and people decorated soldiers' graves and flew flags at half-mast. Major General John A. Logan in 1868 named May 30 as a special day for honoring the graves of Union soldiers. Logan served as commander in chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Union veterans of the Civil War. They had charge of Memorial Day celebrations in the Northern States for many years.