"Adventus" is the exact Christian Latin equivalent of the Greek "parousia."--H.A. Reinhold
The stories about its origin are indeed varied. Perhaps it began as "Decoration Day." The stories I heard was that families would go out to the cemeteries to honor the dead from the Civil War. Graves would be decorated, picnics would be held. The dead and the living would both be honored. Where it originated, and how, is still subject to debate and conjecture. But this much seems clear: we used to be more mature about such things.
We used to recall that war had a high price,
and yet we too easily forget how easily is it paid when all the bodies
are out of sight. It wasn't long after the Civil War, after all, that
we were engaged in the glorious adventure of liberating the
Philippines. Apparently inspired by that venture, Mark Twain wrote his
famous "War Prayer." But even so, we used to honor our dead soldiers.
Perhaps
the Gettysburg Address is linked to Memorial Day, too. The eloquence of
Lincoln is unimaginable in any living politician. But just try to
imagine any of them even addressing the subject of death in this way:
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that "all men are created equal"
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it, as a final resting place for those who died here, that the nation might live. This we may, in all propriety do. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow, this ground -- The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have hallowed it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here; while it can never forget what they did here.
It is rather for us, the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that, from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here, gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people by the people for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Lincoln praised those who died in a valiant struggle to preserve the
union, to keep the nation from ending. "I wish I could translate the
hints about the dead young men and women,/And the hints about old men
and mothers, and the offspring taken soon out of their laps./ What do
you think has become of the young and old men?/What do you think has
become of the women and children?" I think: "A wise man who speaks his
mind calmly is more to be heeded than a commander shouting orders among
fools." I think: "Wisdom is better than weapons of war, and one mistake
can undo many things done well." (Ecclesiastes 9:17-18, NEB)
