In the U.S .Memorial Day is the last Monday in May. It started out as Decoration Day, officially changed to Memorial Day in the 1880's though my late grandmother always called it Decoration Day. It started out as a memorial to Civil War veterans (though it was basicly a Union holiday, not observed as such in the south, who observed state holidays such as Virginia's Lee- Jackson Day). In that was a country of about 35M put about 4M men under arms (on both sides) and about a quarter were killed or wounded.
Today it seems to have gained back some of it's previous meaning as a holiday and not just the unofficial start to summer when swimming pools open and white shoes are in style.
As a ROTC cadet we provided firing partiesforsomelocal observences and were very very honored to be asked and worked hard to make a good job of it.
Thought I understood Armistace Day/Veterans Day until visiting the Scottish National War Memorial a number of years ago. The story of just finishing up the memorial to the Great War with it's apalling casualties and waste and then turning around and having to turn it into a national memorial to add WWII is just too much sometimes.