The annual observance of Memorial Day has been assigned seemingly contradictory meanings. It’s the culmination of a weekend that’s part solemn observance, part celebration of summer’s impending arrival.

We don’t begrudge anyone for wanting to enjoy the holiday weekend. The lost military personnel we celebrate made the ultimate sacrifice to help ensure a good life for the rest of us. We simply ask that people devote at least a few moments for reflection about America’s heroes.

There are ample opportunities all over our region to join with fellow community members in saluting our nation’s war dead along with the veterans who served alongside them. Parades and ceremonies are taking place in many places today.

These events help us remember that Memorial Day is a solemn reminder of the human toll of war. Today, Americans are called upon to recall the nearly 1.2 million of their fellow citizens who died while serving in the military.

We remember the 651,031 killed in battle from the American Revolution through the first war in Iraq; the 308,800 others who died in theaters of war while serving in the U.S. military; the 230,254 killed in service outside a theater of war; and the roughly 7,000 who have died across the globe to guard against the forces of terror.

It began as Decoration Day to honor the nearly half-million who served and died during the Civil War, it was changed after World War I to recognize all Americans who died in military service. In 1971, Memorial Day became a national holiday celebrated on the last Monday in May.

In Charleston, South Carolina, during May 1865 nearly 10,000 former slaves, who had worked for two weeks to bury the remains of hundreds of Union soldiers, decided to give them a proper funeral. The soldiers had died in a prisoner-of-war camp, perishing of malnutrition, exposure to the elements or both.

The story was retold this century in Charleston’s Post and Courier, which cited a firsthand account in a predecessor newspaper.

“The procession began at 9 a.m. as 2,800 Black schoolchildren marched by their graves, softly singing ‘John Brown’s Body.’ Soon, their voices would give way to the sermons of preachers, then prayer and — later — picnics. …

“The exercise on May 1 … began with the reading of a Psalm. The crowd sang a hymn, then prayed. Everyone in the procession carried a bouquet of flowers. …

“These former slaves were joined by several Union regiments, including the 104th and 35th ‘colored regiments,’ as well as the famous 54th Massachusetts. These companies marched around the graves in solemn salute. After the picnic, the crowd drifted away at dusk. They had spent the entire day at the new cemetery.”

In 2000, President Bill Clinton signed a law designating 3 p.m. on Memorial Day each year as the National Moment of Remembrance. And remember we should.

Yet many do not. In a 2019 poll, only 55% of those surveyed could even correctly describe the day as being in honor of those who died serving our nation in military uniform. Others mixed it up with Veterans Day, saying it’s for all military veterans (27%); believe it honors those currently serving (5%) or that it just marks the start of summer (3%). Only 28% had attended a local ceremony or patriotic event on a previous Memorial Day and only 22% had left flowers at a grave site or visited a military monument.

Americans should do something to recognize those, who as President Abraham Lincoln put it, “gave the last full measure of devotion” to this nation and its ideals of freedom and equality. If nothing else, pause at 3 p.m. and think of those who died that we and future generations might live free.

By all means have fun as we celebrate the unofficial arrival of summer. But that shouldn’t keep anyone from sparing a few moments for those whose sacrifices enable us to revel in freedom today.

Written by the Reading (Pennsylvania) Eagle editorial board.